Note, also, that these results are for a single shot of the vaccine. The second shot should produce even better outcomes. Nevertheless, the degree of protection already achieved has triumphantly vindicated the decision to spread out the shots in order to vaccinate as many vulnerable people as possible. More reason, then, for Macron to eat his words — because as well as pouring doubt on the efficacy of the virus, he poured scorn on the UK’s first shot first strategy, stating: “I’m not sure that it’s very serious.”
Well, it is serious, as are the consequences of the EU’s sour grapes. The irony of the supply dispute with AstraZeneca is that shots of the vaccine are now going unused in the EU, because intended recipients (like the older under-65s and health workers) are worried there might be something wrong with it. In Germany, regional governments are pleading with Berlin for permission to reassign doses to people in lower priority groups who are willing to take it.
The contrast with the British experience becomes more embarrassing by the day. Though one would expect Covid deaths to fall as a result of the UK strict lockdown, they’ve been tumbling fastest among the most extensively inoculated age groups — compelling evidence that our vaccine strategy is working.
The Europe Union is now waking up to what it needlessly missed out on. Worried EU governments are now desperately reassuring their populations that the Oxford AZ vaccine is safe and effective. The French have just relaxed the restriction on the vaccine’s use among the over 65s. The Germans are likely to follow suit. Thomas Mertens, head of Germany’s expert panel on vaccine use, has promised an “update” to the current regulations. He was at pains to point out that the existing restriction were never about safety concerns and added that “somehow the whole thing went kind of badly wrong.” Yeah, “somehow”.
In the latest blow to European solidarity, Denmark and Austria have chosen to go their own way, obtaining vaccines via Israel; Slovakia has joined Hungary in acquiring the Russia Sputnik vaccine, believed to be safe although yet to be approved by Brussels; while Poland is considering a deal with China.
And yet the EU’s leaders continue to send the wrong signals. Last week, Angela Merkel said that she would not take the Oxford AZ vaccine herself. Her British defenders point out that this is only because she is 66 and thus just above the age at which the current restrictions kick-in. But, as usual, her apologists miss the point. The rules — which she is ultimately responsible for — are ridiculous and should not exist in the first place. As leader of her country, millions of people will follow her lead.
Of course, hers is not the only screw-up in this pandemic. There isn’t a country in the world that hasn’t got it wrong repeatedly — and the UK is clearly no exception. However, it’s important that we distinguish between the different kinds of mistake.
About a year ago, Britain should have gone into lockdown at least two weeks before it actually did. However, our Government was acting on official scientific advice that was unfortunately wrong. Other failures arise out of the sheer scale of the challenge, test-and-trace being a prime example. We can test at scale, but tracing is supremely difficult when transmission is so widespread. It might have helped if we’d closed our borders at the outset — but that’s an illustration of a third kind of mistake, those that happen when governments are faced with impossible dilemmas. Choosing the lesser of two evils isn’t easy when they’re both overwhelmingly horrible.
The mistakes made by Brussels, Paris and Berlin over recent weeks have been of a different type, and were entirely avoidable. In deciding policy towards AstraZeneca and its vaccine, the scientific advice (from the EMA) wasn’t wrong, the challenges weren’t insurmountable and the choices far from impossible. There was no question as to the safety of the vaccine. There was a degree of uncertainty as to its effectiveness, but good reason to expect a beneficial outcome. After all, for millions of elderly and vulnerable Europeans the alternative isn’t a better vaccine, but no vaccine — a famously ineffective treatment.
The mistake made in this matter was not an honest one. There’s only one motivation that fits with the facts — spite.
As an institution, the EU displays a pattern of behaviour that in an individual would be diagnosed as petty narcissism. We all know the type of person: the character flaw isn’t obvious at first, but they soon give themselves away. In place of the usual give-and-take of a healthy human relationship, they think they’re doing you a favour just by allowing you to interact with them. Furthermore, you will be expected to pay for the privilege. This means abiding by their rules; having to guess what they want without being told; prioritising your relationship with them above any other attachment. Resist their nonsense and you’ll be accused of being the unreasonable one.
If an impasse is reached or you walk away, they won’t wish you well. Indeed, like Jean-Claude Juncker insisting that “Brexit cannot be a success”, they’ll want to you fail without them. And, of course, that’ll be your fault, not theirs. It’s abusive and manipulating, but ultimately self-destructive.
Instead of bullying and then belittling AstraZeneca and the UK, the EU could have chosen the path of cooperation. Even if they genuinely did have questions about the vaccine and the UK’s vaccination strategy they could have kept an open mind — and thus the option to follow suit. As it is, they’ve ensured that any change of mind can only come with a maximum of political embarrassment and humiliation.
Well, never mind — let them pay with their blushes. After all, their people are paying with their lives.
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SubscribeOne of the fascinating wonders of the awful EU is its leadership’s dogged commitment to two completely incompatible obsessions.
On the one hand, their top priority is to make of the European Union an empire which only ever grows in power = control over its unfortunate citizens.
Yet at the same time, they habitually appoint to all the top jobs in the Brussels hierarchy Human Fiascos who have PROVEN themselves incompetent or despised in their home countries: e.g. Barroso, Juncker, von der Leyen.
As camorras or mafias go, it is an extraordinary strategy, isn’t it?
One supposes that bandit gangs of wealth and influence employ enforcers who are skilful and get their jobs done.
Instead, all characteristically, the EU’s real leaders (= the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany) appoint a woman to run things – in due course vaccine-procurement – who was an amazing disaster for 6 years at the head of the German armed forces and left them in a completely dysfunctional state.
Likewise they made Michel Barnier their negotiator with the UK over Brexit; and he, having caused opinion in Britain to harden against the EU 2016-19, thereby torpedoing his own deadly ‘Withdrawal Agreement’, is kept in post; which ensures a less favourable outcome for Brussels in the eventual treaty.
It is like the selectors of a national football squad choosing time and again players who are state-registered blind or visibly legless.
Long may this habit continue; so that the EU, with all its tyranny and insane groupthink, winds up as soon as possible.
Yes, for at least 30 years the EU has been run by total incompetents such as those you mention plus the likes of Kinnock, Ashton, von Rumpuy, Barrosso, Verhofstadt and many others. Remember the Growth & Stability Pact which, needless to say, has delivered neither growth or stability?
As I have often said, you wouldn’t become, for instance, a Taliban leader, had you not demonstrated some competence in terms of fighting, agriculture or whatever. Even most leaders of the Soviet Union had proved themselves in various ways. But the leaders of the EU and, to be fair, the leaders of many western democracies, are people who tend to have done nothing and know nothing.
The leaders in the EU are failures in their domestic countries, farmed out by the leaders of said domestic countries in an effort to get rid of an embarrassment. Van de Leyen prime example. Complete failure as defence minister, bumped out by Merkel to the EU.
There was a time, now widely derided, when our leaders were selected from those who were born to lead – those with titles and had who been to the right schools and universities. There were, of course, notable exceptions to that rule; those, like David Lloyd George and later Margaret Thatcher, who had demonstrated exceptional qualities in joining the elite despite not having all the right breeding. But that’s how it worked for hundreds of years – it created an Empire and it turned Britain from a small island nation into a world power.
Now, the process of who gets to be a leader in society is shrouded in mystery, and the notion that candidates fill in an application form and are selected by an expert panel is, quite frankly, just as ludicrous as the selection by breeding was always claimed to be. The elite, whoever they might be, promote their mates as they have always done. For an in-depth analysis of this, read Hilaire Belloc’s poem about Lord Lundy.
The chief qualification for leadership these days seems to be an ability to pass exams, and a total lack of knowledge and experience when it comes to the real world and normal people. Oh, and a crazed desire for power and telling others what to do, as nakedly revealed over the last year.
It is the rise of the Political Class, who have never really had a meaningful job outside politics. That really is the nub of the problem, because they have no idea how the world actually works. Juncker was an example of this, as I think is Van de Leyen and it shows in spades. Look at Macron, who I think is incredibly childish and immature. If you took Merkel out for Lunch I’m sure you would have to decide what to order – she can’t make decisions. Most of them are also far too young when they get elected which is another failing.
Why is a job in politics inherently less meaningful than a job in banking, finance, advertising, the military, journalism, embalming, museum curation, space exploration or surfing?
What jobs do you think it’s essential for politicians to do before they become politicians?
There is nothing wrong with being a politician per se, and it can indeed be a very meaningful job. I would cite people like Frank Field and Kate Hoey as being among those who bestowed meaning and dignity on the profession. Claire Fox and Nigel Farage are further examples.
However, it is not something that people should be doing until they have worked at something else for at least 10 years. We have far too many such as the Milibands, Corbyn, Cameron who have glided from university (well, Poly in Corbyn’s case) to special advisor/think tanker etc, to MP without gathering any knowledge of life as it lived by most people, or as experienced by small business owners.
Also, Corbyn graduated from his Poly to become the leader of the Islington Council, one which was reportedly the most corrupt in Britain under his leadership, where every contract, job, housing, permit, business licence, required credentials showing how Hard Left you were. You were in the club or out the door. This gave him an exceptionally good qualification for the job he moved up to.
Absolutely agree on most of this. It’s a loss to their party that the old breed of labour politicians that started ‘at the coal face’ are gradually becoming obsolete.
Nigel Farage though? You’ve lost me there.
Even if you don’t like the result, name one politician who started out totally alone and achieved as much as Farage.
Some task which is managerial – over several years – and/or (at least) sheer competence at making things work in any respectworthy work-domain.
For instance being a competent shepherd or nurse for a decade.
I’m struggling to grasp how a decade of shepherding might equip a person to run the country.I know a bit about shepherding. It certainly requires hard work and tenacity, but what else it requires that might be useful in guiding a nation, I do not see.
“What jobs do you think it’s essential for politicians to do before they become politicians?”
No specific job, but a real job, with real, normal responsibilities – and ideally, in the private sector. Someone who has built or run a business, or developed a law practice. Someone who has worked in science or engineering. But not someone who has gone straight into a political party “policy research” post and on to an MP slot.
Because success in politics does not entail the ability to meet practical obligations, but only political infighting skills. Someone, on the other hand, who has had to meet a payroll, run a profitable enterprise, lead a military campaign -in general, face consequences- knows what people outside of government have to deal with.
I think you have hit on the nub of it….
In a world where “actions have consequences” this appears to be lost on many (all?) current politicians.
At least in a “real job” – especially in the private sector, actions do have consequences. This is essential early learning for would be leaders.
Some experience of the kind of real, everyday work that most of us do might give politicians insight into the workings of the real world and its people’s lives. Today, too many politicians go straight from university into politics and government. They are a cloistered, incestuous breed apart. The EU is the ultimate example of this, that is why it is so increasingly out of touch with the people it is supposed to represent.
A German friend summed up Merkle thus.
She does nothing until the problem goes away then claims credit for its solution.
Or in the case of the current incumbent, a career as a journalist punctuated by sackings for lying, but building a significant enough constituency among the feeble-minded readers of the Daily Telegraph (the house journal among the 0.2% of the country which belongs to the Tory party and therefore has a vote in Tory leadership elections) to get them to elect him.
And someone who won the Conservatives their biggest election victory in 80 years. Perhaps half the country is feeble-minded as well??
Anyone who trusts Boris Johnson is definitely feeble-minded.
Your “we won the election” is a feeble response to the statements I made. How about disputing my statements that Boris Johnson has been repeatedly sacked for lying, or disputing that he became Tory leader by feeding lies to the snowflake readers of the DT in their safe space echo chamber? But I guess it’s hard to do that.
I don’t care. I’m more interested in results. He took the bull by the horns and went for an election to get us out of the quagmire imposed by the politicians and he delivered a reasonable BREXIT. There is an argument that the initial COVID response was botched, however, hindsight is a great thing and I doubt anyone else could really have done much better. Is he the only liar? You would have to be lying yourself if you didn’t think all politicians don’t succumb in some form or another.
It wasn’t just the awful initial response.
In mid-September, SAGE recommended a two week lockdown as a circuit breaker. Keir Starmer supported that. Boris, weakly giving in to pressure from know-nothing Tory backbenchers, described the scientists’ advice as “ridiculous”. Six weeks later, the virus was out of control and Boris had to eat his own words and institute a one month lockdown. A failure which has led to tens of thousands of deaths.
Lockdowns Produce Spikes..Immunisation Looks the best Way to Some Normality, Anyone who thinks ANY of Partys leaders are anything but incompetent,should View ”Mr Jones” A ridiculously underrated 2020 film, about What happens when You See Famine,Tell the truth,When others told lies, in this Case russian famine..10 million deaths overlooked by new york Times,Daily Worker ,David Lloyd George etc…
Oh yes ‘Captain Hindsight Starmer’, the great Civil Liberties Lawyer who wants to lock up the entire population in their own homes for ever and a day. Isn’t it troubling that a man like that has no regard at all for our Liberty which has been tossed aside by a virus. And WE have allowed this to happen.
It wasn’t hindsight when Keir Starmer supported the scientists’ recommendation at the time they made it in mid-September, it was foresight. It was Boris who was forced into hindsight by enacting at the end of October what he should have enacted six weeks earlier before a lot of people died.
Which set of scientists do you choose to believe?
Some of this is true, but is far from confined to the UK. People like you continually ignore the fact that this pattern of death has been seen all over the planet wherever societies are connected to the outside world AND made up of a large percentage of obese adults. Obesity is a far greater predictor of death than government.
Also, I note you are entirely silent about the brilliance of our vaccine campaign. Third in the entire world behind only two wealth small nations. Way ahead of the USA and five times ahead of any EU nation. Just watch our death rates collapse as the EU rates go up. Of course – YOU will say nothing about this.
What I dislike about you is that your position is fundamentally dishonest and political rather than fair analysis.
Excellent point. Boris’ results with Brexit were truly astounding after the incompetence of previous efforts. Not to mention the vaccine rollout in the UK which has also been excellent. It’s hard to argue with success.
I don’t think a breakdown of the voting in the election would reveal that the DT readership were the votes that gave him a majority.
Did boris Johnson win it or did Corbyn loose it? The conservative victory is as much to to with the unelectable opposition than with any outstanding talent on Johnson’s part. For the first time in my life I spoiled my ballot paper because I couldn’t vote for any of the candidates. Johnson’s success is Corbyn’s legacy unfortunately. Corbyn certainly cured me of any sympathy with the hard left. Johnson is at heart a light entertainer and serial liar – a second rate stand-up.
Not saying that half the population are feeble-minded, but everyone loves a puppy. It’ll hump your leg, ruin the carpet and eat the sofa though.
I think you will find after some reflection that it was Dominic Cummings who won them that, and also won the referendum for them. He was rapidly discarded after the election and the usual suspects of the entitled political class began whispering into the ear of the PM. Boris is a lovable rogue, but he is not a great strategist. He needed Cummings, but was once again being led by his reproductive organs when he axed him. Cummings could have made Boris achieve great things. He (Cummings) is irascible,ill-tempered and abrasive, but he would have made this government into a great government had he not been set aside by the influence of the usual suspects. A tragic error.
Cummings is an interesting figure, and I’m kind of ambivalent about what I think of him. He’s certainly effective and intelligent. Leaving the topic of the need for mass vaccination out of it, recently Matt Hancock was getting praise in the media for foreseeing issues with the scramble to get vaccines and preparing well for this, unlike the EU. Debatable perhaps, but it kind of rang true to me. Seems to me that Cummings would have been influential too, but the press just didn’t get briefed that bit. I suspect we haven’t heard the last of him.
There was a period of 40 years or so where our leaders came neither from the old hereditary ruling class or the new hereditary stupid class, but from the genuine meritocracy of having proved themselves as able leaders in one of the two world wars:
Attlee and Macmillan in the 1st, Heath, Whitelaw, Healey etc in the 2nd. They served their country bravely and with distinction, gaining promotion to leadership positions.
The current ruling class have achieved nothing, they are useless, stupid, entirely self serving and serial failures. I wish there was a way short of another global war to clear the lot of them out and start again.
I hope you are not including Dainne Abbot in your lumping of leaders chosen for reasons other than excellence. I think her unique ability with numbers makes her the perfect person explain Rishi’s ‘spend your way out of debt and into prosperity’ strategy to the public.
I agree with your assessment of her searing intellect however Dawn Butler may have demonstrated that edge she has over even Dianne. Truly Labour are fortunate to number these two, not to mention Mr Burgon and the charismatic Long-Bailey amongst their number.
And ‘Celebrity Mastermind’ David Lammy – celebrity, master, mind? Surely a triple oxymoron.
I don’t take my political lead from poetry or any other art form as they are mostly written by the equivalent of back-seat drivers, side-line referees, journalists, etc. Outside of their field (and often within it) they are just as dumb as the next guy, They are just another input to be aggregated with all the other inputs that I have come across in my life.
Hilaire Belloc was hardly a heavyweight philosopher. Just very amusing, for a Frenchman.
Hilaire Belloc was a French born naturalised British writer and historian. His French father died when Belloc was two and he was brought up by his English mother in Sussex. School in Birmingham and a first in history from Balliol. He was MP for Salford South 1906-10
Not bad “…for a Frenchman” eh Richard Brown?
I find it VERY hard to understand why a person in the twenty-first century would be talking nostalgically about leaders being selected according o their ‘breeding’. I want leaders selected according to their proven track record for brilliance and strategy. Selecting them from some sort of social class level of ‘breeding’, is an outrage in a democratic society and also, as anyone knows who has an inkling of the outcomes of extensive research on human ability, would lead as likely as not to disaster. There were plenty of chinless wonders in the armed forces in two world wars who turned out to be complete disasters. Even supposing one accepted that good ‘breeding’ led to high intelligence (and I certainly don’t) intelligence in an individual is only around fifty percent related to the genes. Two brilliant parents certainly do not necessarily produce a brilliant child. Indeed the concept of regression to the mean is well understood to make it far from certain that genius couplings produce more geniuses. In fact it is unlikely.
Leaders should be selected entirely because of their demonstrable personal qualities, dedication to empirical methods and their drive to make policy happen. Dominic Cummings knew this and although he exhibited some personal failings of his own which made him rather unlovable, he scared the living sh|t out of the people with good breeding who dominate the higher levels of the civil service and the media.
Absolutely, the class and public school system is still prevalent in England and is toxic. It weakens our country and promotes mediocrity.
Seems to me most Labour MPs have been selected for their “breeding”
I have read, not totally sure of the reliability of the source, that half the members of the first Labour cabinet were ex-miners, men who knew what a days work was.
How unlike the present shower.
Right schools, universities, breeding? I don’t think so.
Systemic failure by the political class is not confined to the EU. The government in the US has as its nominal head a man with little of his mind left. Furthermore, he has long been a vassal of China as is his disgusting son the bag man. You have to back to ancient Rome to find equivalent disorder, moral squalor and political corruption.
Not ancient Rome, last days of Rome.
Biden bombed Syria within 6 weeks of Winning A ‘Dubious’ Election
A perfunctory bombing to show the world he was willing to use force. Not unlike Trump, btw.
Do you recall the shrill shrieking from ther left when Trump ordered the killing of that Iranian murderer?
Your perfunctory bombing Killed at least 22 Syrians,Minding their own business, he Still has someway to go to equal O’Bombers 14 countries bombed &similar george Bush
On the plus side, the more powers these people gather for themselves, the more obvious their shortcomings will be.
Beautifully put, thank you for the clarity and hence the force of the proposition. It is an oddity; and this is perhaps due to the essentially second tier status of the EU in Europe. At the moment, because national sovereignty is still a thing, the most ambitious politicians strive for election in a national polity; second string operatives, not able to compete in that arena, are sidelined to the EU. But, at the same time, the EU is trying to become the supranational polity while itself hampered by these insufficiently capable bureaucrats. It is paradoxical that the task demanding the most able, is allocated to the people least likely to bring it about. And, in addition, these people are not just responsible for day to day management, but for leadership on larger issues. The Euro, for example.
“Barroso, Juncker, von der Leyen.”
You forgot to mention Mandelson.
Mandleson was Blair’s animal who scoured the world for unsuitable migrants to ‘Rub The Right’s Nose In It’. For his huge success at that he was given a ticket on the EU, five *, gravy train for life. To me he is the creepiest man in Europe.
The Commission is the EU’s equivalent of the House of Lords or Quangos – where they send people they want out of the way or who aren’t any good. Frau Merkel wanted Frau Von der Leyen out of the way for the leadership succession – and she wasn’t any good.
INDEED.
But using the EU Commission as a kind of exalted dustbin is not compatible with doing everything possible to increase its credibility and the subject populations’ adherence to membership.
The fiasco of the Brussels vaccine procurement and rollout has much increased exasperation with the EU in the 27 remaining member countries, just when the Imperial Racket could have done with not falling behind a UK which has escaped.
‘e.g. Barroso, Juncker, von der Leyen.’
Mandelson…
Let us go back one step further in time, to unmask the psychology of the debacle.
The fact that the European Commission was put in charge of a collective response to the pandemic was a direct result of Brexit. In effect, the European nations were goaded into that policy decision by their stances throughout the post Brexit referendum period, up to the separation negotiations.
Let me try and explain. Imagine there had been no referendum and the UK was still a semi-detached member of the EU status quo. Then the pandemic comes along in early 2020. Without Brexit, the individual EU nations would have made individual responses to the pandemic, as EU rules allow – likely in both competition and cooperation with each other, for vaccine procurement etc. I don’t believe the European Commission would have been handed the job.
The fact that they were, was due to the psychology engendered by Brexit. Brexit forced into the spotlight questions about the raison d’être of the EU. Having made a song and dance for four years about block unity and solidarity, and the huge economic, organisational and social advantages of the EU (buying leverage etc), the EU nations felt compelled to put their money where their mouth was. To prove a point.
And boy, have they proved a point.
Spot on
Spite on.
Very true. And in addition, they got off to a very bad start a year ago. When all populations were reliant on PPE as their sole defence, the nation states of Europe all rushed to seize all and any stocks within their borders, regardless of who they legally belonged to.
Then, as national governments started placing advance orders for vaccines in development, the EU crats decided. with Merkel’s backing, to muscle in, smack their bottoms, and take over.
Then the national leaders fought like Kilkenny Cats over which vaccine manufacturers should get the EU procurement contract, and the Micron won a substantial slice of the cake for Sanofi, which then backed out because of technical problems. By which time the other producers were all fully booked up for months ahead.
Then they squabbled among themselves because some EU leaders wanted the drug companies to drop their prices and accept unlimited ongoing liability for any adverse effects. I thinks that’s called cakeism.
Left with a long wait for the stocks they eventually ordered, they lashed out at Ireland in a fit of pique, then they lied to frighten their own public from taking the small stock of vaccine they do have, which is approaching the use by date.
All driven by spite, malice, and the basest of human faults. These people could start a war, in an empty room, over a packet of crisps.
I’m inclined to agree
Yes, the EU leaders are revealed to be the narcissistic and nasty incompetents that some of us have known them to be for many years – and I write as one who was once a huge proponent of the EU and who has benefitted greatly from its freedom of movement in terms of work etc.
But as far as I know, the EU press and EU population are still not really aware of this. It seems to me that only Bild has spoken out on the vaccine issue. To the extent that I follow the Dutch press, it seems to the usual garbage.
And, needless to say, the EU leaders show no remorse. Instead, they are doubling down on their mission to create a superstate ruled by unelected tyrants in Brussels. No surprise there…
Same journey here. In my youth I was massively pro-Europe. I still am, but now recognize that the people of Europe and the EU are two very different things…
Same here. The Brexiteer trope remains true – ‘Love Europe hate the EU’
So why stop those of us who don’t hate the EU and love Europe moving and living there freely?
The UK isn’t, it’s the EU who are stopping you. They could allow it if they wished.
There will be nothing to stop you moving to an EU country if you have a useful skill to offer, or sufficient funds to support yourself.
If you were any earthly use, the Germans would have recruited you already.
You had four years after the referendum to do exactly that. But you presumably did not.
The UK is not responsible for other countries inward migration policies, so far as I’m aware there is no restriction on anyone leaving the UK if they so wish. You may have us confused with the former East Germany or perhaps Cuba where people were stopped from leaving.
Europe is a very nice place – what does liking it or disliking it have to do with the EU?
I’m sure spite does play a role in this. Take Denmark and Austria’s move yesterday to set up a vaccine cooperation with Israel. Now, Sebastian Kurz does have a famously chummy relationship with Netanjahu which might explain that – but why not cooperate with the UK? Because the political cost of being seen to side with the heretics, the “unreasonable ones” would be too great. I’m sure Israel will be a great partner but the UK would surely have been just as good and also willing to assist and contribute know-how. That that option is a no-go is all down to silly EU pettiness.
There are two other factors that I think are relevant here:
1) The EU was still on its Brexit-negotiations-unity high and the inexorable logic of that led (in part) to the vaccine procurement being given to the Commission. We stayed unified against the UK, so of course, we can here! However, this is a completely different situation. It’s easy to be unified against something/someone…but far harder to act positively in concert to achieve something. As I’ve been saying for a long time to my friends in Austria (who, until now, have looked at me like I’m completely bananas, or worse – A POPULIST, gasp): yes, the EU “worked” in the Brexit negotiations…but the unity doesn’t extend to many other areas and when this is all done and the UK is out, the old problems will just come roaring back. The root of the matter is that the EU, in its current state, just doesn’t function in the way necessary to face the challenges of the 21st century. There can be no better demonstration of this prediction coming true than the vaccine programme.
2) I have made this point before and I WILL labour it: there is absolutely zero comprehension in Brussels (as well as Austria at least) that this is a situation where the usual rules have to be chucked overboard, pronto. Absolute focus on the goal – getting populations immunised ASAP – is key. We’re in the middle of an emergency and the Austrian Chamber of Doctors is rejecting the arguments of the Chamber of Pharmacists that pharmacists should also be able to give jabs on their premises: because they don’t have exactly the right qualifications according to the normal rules! They are acting like we have all the time in the world and businesses aren’t going under en masse. As a citizen (and business owner), when I read this, I become incandescent with rage. My health and my livelihood are taking second place to petty industry rivalries and rules that were already outdated in the 80s (welcome to Austria).
Not a time for turf wars, for sure. Decisive leadership normally sorts that kind of thing out.
You’re not wrong. It took 5 seconds to have my COVID shot. Intravenous injections are one thing, but intramusculars are so straightforward even steroid-abusing bodybuilders can manage them, FGS.
Pharmacists, vets, Boy Scouts – they should be letting anyone do them.
Well, everyone except EU leaders and officials. They would find a way to screw up a simple injection, one way or another.
That’s very true Fraser. Owing to their lack of cognition, EU officials would almost certainly attempt to give the patient an intramuscular in the elbow.
It got even sillier: apparently, the pharmacists stand accused of just wanting to make a profit off of this. I don’t read their offer in that way – I just think they have understood the situation and that they are well placed to help.
And even if they did want to make a buck – doctors aren’t always guided by altruistic considerations, are they? And, with the rise of online pharmacies – Austrian chemists need to find some way of keeping their business viable. I’m on Team Pharmacy here!
If the politicians insist on everyone having a vaccine that is probably unnecessary for most people under the age of 70, you can’t blame the pharma companies for taking the money.
And, as you say, the medical profession has always been motivated primarily by money. In Brecht’s play ‘The Causcasian Chalk Circle’ a doctor is banned from practicing because he refused to accept money for treating someone.
In Roman times you paid your doctor until you fell ill, and you then stopped paying him until you were well again.
I’m amazed the profession ever gave up that model. Most of your income is secure most of the time; if a patient falls ill, you get the kudos and the money resumes if you cure him; and if you kill him, you’re no worse off than you were when he was just ill.
Isn’t that precisely the NHS model?
Nor really. The more people the NHS kills, the more money its employees are given.
“The more people the NHS kills, the more money its employees are given.”
Please either explain that or withdraw it.
Man eaten by Sharks dies of SARS2 as listed by certain NHS trusts
You don’t get a tax deduction when you’re in hospital. If you did the model would be quite close.
Not really. In the NHS model other people pay in a bit extra to make sure there is enough money to pay for you if for some reason (like you’re too ill, too old, too young or too poor) you can’t afford to pay in yourself at any point in time.
“n Roman times you paid your doctor until you fell ill,”
Ha ha. That is kind of how the system works with “health insurance” in the USA. You pay your premiums every month, and when you fall ill you fight it out with the insurance co. to get “approved” for treatment and then to get the treatment paid for.
Like the US friend of mine who found that her health insurance stopped paying for her cancer treatment and pointed to the small print saying that only three courses of treatment were covered. After that you could die while they counted their profits.
Which US insurance system are you talking about?
“a vaccine that is probably unnecessary for most people under the age of 70,”
thanks for clarifying that. Is everyone on this list planning to have mRNA shot into their bodies? Not me.
Yes thanks, I’ve already had mine.
If you get Covid, please don’t take a hospital bed because of your foolishness. Cancer patients like a close relative of mine need them. And if, unvaccinated, you catch Covid, please make sure you don’t infect others even before you know you have it. Can you do that? No. So others, including my relative, may end up paying the price.
Is your cancer patient friend there because of increased likelihood from lifestyle choices? Because even smokers get treatment.
People making your argument should also say if a car wreck was due to speeding the injured driver should be left to die on the side of the road.
Agree, but not really an argument for stupidity along the lines of “I’m not having the vaccine” (followed by taking a bed when the person concerned can’t breathe due to Covid), any more than it’s an argument for “I’m going to drive at 200mph, the NHS will patch me up”.
I think we should have the vaccine and I disagree with the tone of the anti vaccine comment above but it is not irrational to not want to have it. People make decisions as they see fit, even if I think they are wrong and live with the consequences.
Who’s to say what the effects of the vaccine will be in a decade?
Thank you for the sanity.
I’m 74, fit, not overweight, no underlying morbidity. Caught the virus mid-Jan; was under the weather for three days. For five others in my circle, another 74 year old, 55, 30, 32 and 26 years old none was unwell for more than five days. SARS-cov-2 is not life threatening if you’re fit and have a robust immune system. So, does everyone need to be vaccinated?
We are getting vaccinated to help those who are more susceptible to serious impact or death. My wife falls in that category, as does my daughter (cancer).
Thank you.
Balls. My brother in law was slim, fit healthy and killed by COVID in less than a month.
I guess the concern might be here, that Austrian Pharmacists are not deemed by Austrian Doctors to be competent enough to deal with (mercifully rare) acute anaphylactic reactions ??
The reasoning given was that an injection is, legally speaking, a bodily injury and pharmacists are currently not authorised to do this while doctors are. This is a legal detail which can be changed, or at least an exception made.
Is an exception permitted under EU regulations?
I don’t think EU regulations would have anything to do with it – I think what does and doesn’t constitute bodily injury would be a matter of national criminal law.
Pharmacies in the USA such as CVS are giving the shots. And of course they have alwyas been the go-to place for flu shots. Not that I have ever had one—and I always did think it a bit strange when i saw the signs outside the pharmacies to get your flu shots there.
So what is the big deal now with the covid jabs? Could it be that the jabs are untested and they are genuinely worried about serious reactions that will require a doctor?
Could that be?
No. They are not “untested”, they have been through multi-month trials with tens of thousands of people.
And approximately 21 million Brits.
They are authorised – not approved – for emergency use. What is happening is an enormous experimental trial.
Pfizer is supplying its vaccine on condition that it accepts no liability for any adverse reaction.
As I said above, I think it makes sense to take it, but we don’t know the longer term effects. You are too sure of your own wisdom
Couldn’t put it better myself. Welcome to sparring with the dogmatic, increasingly vituperative Chris C.
Seems to me like he talks sense…
Most Americans do not get their flu shots at CVS.
I was once trained to give injections, there is nothing to it, took a couple days, we injected oranges, and then each other, after lessons on veins and arteries and muscle mass and fat layers and where to shoot it, and how to make sure it was in the place it needed to be and how to fill/empty the syringe.
Congratulations, you have something in common with Errol Flynn.
So who gives out flu jabs at Asda?
Don’t forget we had some of the same problems. Did you see the hoops people wanting to volunteer to help with the jabs had to jump through.
And I believe that small pharmacists are still not being allowed to give the jab (ours isn’t) even though Boots is. Trouble is, there’s only one big Boots and one small Boots (latter not involved, I suspect) in this city.
Sorry that doesn’t support the “Brexit UK good, EU bad” groupthink here.
I voted Remain in 2016, and have changed my mind. Why ? The negotiations showed what the EU was really like. I saw that the main factor in EU decision-making was what would be good for Brussels. Then, there is all the corruption around massive EU programmes, like the Euro 750bn pandemic package. Anyone can see that E 750bn is really a lot of money. It’s not hard to imagine that a few Euro bn, here and there, isn’t going to be much missed. Brussels is deeply corrupt. I knew that already, and tolerated it, and the obscene CAP subsidy system, for other benefits brought by being part of a united Europe. Now we have the vaccination saga, outlined so well in this article. No more, Thank goodness GB is out. Thank you Boris.
Same here. Sat on the fence right til I went into that booth and voted Remain. But I never denigrated or dismissed the Leave position. The last 5 years really opened my eyes to the machinations of the EU and our own establishment. I am so glad so many of my countryfolk were brave enough to just go for it when everyone said they shouldn’t and called them every name under the sun. I made up for it by voting for Boris in 2019 and I don’t regret it.
I didn’t vote because both sides lied so much, but since the result I have noticed that Remainers, especially the BBC, are people with whom I disagree about almost everything else. So on balance I’m glad Leave won.
“I made up for it by voting for Boris in 2019 and I don’t regret it.”
So now you’re living in the country with the highest Covid death toll in Europe, and the third highest death rate per million population in the world (the only two higher being small countries).
Sorry old bean but the death statistics in the UK are drivel.
Tripe 3% of 112,000 are due to SARS2
Says who? A fringe website run by some cranks?
Right smartypants, Corbyn would have done it better?
This idea that all deaths in a country whether it’s the UK or the US or any country are due to one person is so incredibly dumb. Why should anyone even entertain such drivel?
Where are you getting your numbers from? Check this https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
5 European countries are above us. It is also clear we are not all counting the same, according to the statistics Captain Tom Moore died of Covid, despite having been treated for pneumonia for 5 weeks previously, a disease which kills a great many elderly people. Also according to the statistics, we have had not a SINGLE death from flu this year, in fact the death rate overall is now running below the 5 year average, so clearly deaths are being counted as Covid when they would in fact have occured anyway. We are including people with terminal cancer who then test postive. We are counting those who died WITH not FROM. The WHO published data this week showing how significant obesity is as a factor and we have the most obese population in Europe. In additon we have in London the largest city in western Europe with a very mobile international population, so it was pretty obvious that London would suffer. There is no comparision to London in Europe, the only fair comparision is New York. I see these ridiculous comparisions with places like New Zealand, yet there are more international travellers in and out of Heathrow in three weeks than there are in and out of NZ in a year. It’s true that with hindsight, we could have done more earlier, but as you can see from the rising infection rates in Europe (on the link I provided) there really is no defence until either herd immunity or a vaccine. There does seem to be an unfortunate desire on the part of certain people to continually run down their own country.
There is much joy in Heaven at a Sinner who repenteth.
So very similar- I made a remain decision at the last minute- as we have a house in France, and subsequently noted the vindictiveness of the EU towards us. The Remoaners did not help either. Likewise the discovery of so much EU fraud.
Many- if the Remoaners managed to get a second referendum would, like me, would have voted out. EU spite forced many to see the EU in its true colours. A bloated, overpaid, and incompetent bunch of failed politicians.
Right after the EU’s petty behavior during Brexit, maybe this pettiness wasn’t such a great idea on Merkel and Macron’s part. Can’t blame Austria and Denmark, and any of the other countries, they have the right idea, do right for your people regardless of what Germany and France do for theirs.
In extremis, in democratic systems, politicians are most inclined to listen and respond to the people they quite rightly feel most accountable to ie their electorates, not least because they have to suffer the periodic inconvenience and indignity of facing them at the ballot box.
Regardless of your opinion on covid and the handlings of covid, it has proved to be a pretty acute lesson, as if it were needed, for the politicians of the EU on the apparent endless perils thrown up by democratic accountability.
Perils, by design, that they are clearly intent on avoiding for themselves in future for good reason.
The responses of Merkel, and especially Macron, to the AZ vaccine, are yet another illustration of the sheer randomness of many decisions at the highest political levels across the globe, from people seemingly completely sane, sober and competent – followed by a scramble to, um, scramble the source, when the proverbial hits the fan. I bet it is no different in the US or China or Russia or anywhere. It then becomes difficult to claim that the decisions of, say Trump, were in reality any different from those who on the face of it appear far more sane.
Verily, The Inverted Pyramid of Piss.
The random decision-making is why I voted Leave. In 2015,Merkel, on a whim and without consulting the other members of the EU, opened the borders to every refugee/economic migrant from everywhere to head for the EU.
Trump pulled off ‘Operation Lightspeed’ without him and that the vaccines would still be in development. Trump gets things done if the entire Liberal establishment is not blocking him every way possible, and even then he gets things done. The man is one of the cleverest and craftiest men ever.
Senile old Joe is claiming credit, as he Says Vaccine will be available to all by June 2021
I couldn’t agree less. It is patent that Trump was on a personal aggrandisement mission, a vanity project. It is a remarkable characteristic of free nations that once in a while such individuals can rise to the top, and in most circumstances the free nation will survive them with ease – no biggie. Often such individuals will be ‘masked’ because the government machine will cover for them, albeit with a glum face. An inflated snakeoil salesman, too capricious to let the machine help him, not bright enough to bend the machine to his will, in way over his head with the challenges he faced, and no help to anyone, least of all the left behinds he promised to help.
My point is that under the hood many of others who appear sincere and sober might easily be only marginally better (or they could even be worse) – real motives become difficult to unpack, especially because many politicos who have experience of the machine often end up thinking they know better than others, and are willing to manipulate the machine as a case of ends justifying means. Biden is a case in point, as was Hilary Clinton, as was Blair.
What does any of that have to do with Operation Warp Speed? Are you saying that that did not happen under Trump? Or that that is not the reason for the lightening speed of the vaccine?
As I recall, the first vaccines were from a German-Turkish company (produced in Belgium), Russia, and China, followed by AstraZeneca, Moderna and J&J. Was Trump pushing those?
What does your comment have to do with WarpSpeed? If Germany and Turkey developed effective vaccines there’s even less reason for Germany to be in the position it’s in today.
No, the first vaccine authorised for use in the west was developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the latter a German company. True, the vaccine was developed by a Turkish couple living in Germany, but the Pfizer partnership enabled its development and mass production at a number of sites, including one in Belgium.
I was responding to the point that Trump is one of the cleverest and craftiest men ever. I don’t think he is either. As to warp speed, I don’t know much about that to comment. One thing I do know though is that overall Trump responded in an uncoordinated and chaotic way to the virus – he was pretty useless. Moreover, he politicised the emergency, something he patently shouldn’t have done. My original point was: so did the highly regarded (by some) EU leaders like Macron and Merkel – which makes them no better than Trump. Different gutter, same stink.
We wouldn’t have a vaccine today without OWS. What Trump did was eliminate funding issues and red tape. He guaranteed drug companies orders and worked to speed up the approval process. That’s exactly what he should have been doing. There could have been no better use of his time. He did all the coordination for OWS, without him there was no OWS.
Trump didn’t politicize the vaccine but some others did. Particularly the media who did what they could to cast doubts about the vaccine and today we have people who won’t take it, congratulations.
my guess is that you do not understand the US federalism system which leads to mistakes in your thinking.
I totally agree: in addition OWS dealt with issues that many people do not even consider. How do we mass produce millions of glass vials for the vaccines; millions of syringes to administer them; what cold-storage logistics capacity is there to store and transport millions of vaccine doses that need to be stored at -70C. I recently read that huge plastic bags are needed to mix the vaccines (FT?): they are made by a subsidiary of Merck at a US plant that increased capacity last year and is now increasing capacity again by 50%. Thankfully there are thousands of useful people who get on with sorting these issues out rather than just bitching online and talking nonsense.
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‘they think they’re doing you a favour just by allowing you to interact with them. Furthermore, you will be expected to pay for the privilege. This means abiding by their rules; having to guess what they want without being told; prioritising your relationship with them above any other attachment. Resist their nonsense and you’ll be accused of being the unreasonable one.’
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That is totally uncanny! How on earth can you know my wife as well as you clearly do???
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I thought he was talking about the NHS
The NHS which is doing such a good job at vaccinating people?
I think the great tragedy which mustn’t be forgotten here is that citizens across the EU have been unable to access vaccines for reasons of politicking above all else. Amid this some of the comments coming from various figures in the EU have been positively Trumpian.
I remember taking on a team in a new job some years back. A member of the team had been sitting on an EU committee on building safety for 10 years, with regular trips to Brussels. When I asked what regulatory changes the committee had made in that time, the answer was ‘none’. His trips to Brussels came to a swift end.
My point is that the EU’s decision on vaccines, to have a whole-block approach was entirely wrong-headed and unrealistic given the length of tie it takes to conduct relatively simple tasks. I think it’s simplistic to think this was a response to Brexit, I suspect it was about the EU trying to present itself to its members as the cavalry and, on that basis, it failed.
The UK government can hardly present itself as having handled this crisis well. However it’s arguable that the most remembered element of a crisis is how it ends and, on that basis, the government just may have played a blinder.
Well, the alternative to the ‘whole-block’ approach would be a free-for-all. The pharma companies would get richer, the richest and strongest countries would get to the front of the vaccine queue and the weaker and poorer woild get nothing for now – like Moldova. The total number of vaccinations would not have been any bigger.
The EU is an ungainly and unlovely beast, but there are some compensating advantages in cooperation over cut-throat fighting.
Yes, it’s great that instead of smaller EU smaller EU member states going to the back of the queue, all member states went to the back of the queue because the EU was more interested in haggling down the price than saving lives.
Not so great for the elderly and infirm people in Germany, France, the Netherlands, etc. who would now be alive today if they had had the vaccine, but what’s that compared to the benefits of unity on suffering.
Hardly.Moldova, last time I saw, had got no vaccines. Zero. That is the back of the queue. Do you really think that an uncoordinated buyers’ frenzy would have benefited *all* the competitors?
Why is co-ordination of buyers OK when it’s the EU doing it ineptly, but an illegal monopsony when private organisations do it?
I’d love the British government to offer them some vaccines
The EU’s socialist model. Everyone is equal at the bottom
They’d be dead sooner if they had to cope with UK levels of mortality per head of population.
You mean the way the UK classifies (overcounts) deaths as being due to Covid, based on an unreliable test set at a stupidly high CT level?
The very same.
To be fair this is far from over and countries all measure their deaths by a different criteria. My hunch is that we are more or less on the same level.
Your hunch is right. It is the same virus – mutations not withstanding – and treatments have been roughly uniform, so death rates would also be roughly uniform.
But the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine was being offered at cost anyway (something worth remembering next time we start fulminating against big Pharma). Really, the EU Commission’s focus on price rather than speed was an elementary mistake. And certain small countries (Israel, Bahrain, even Serbia) seem to be doing rather better by taking an individual approach.
Have you been following the post-vaccine death statstics in Israel?
Here we go …… more claims from anti-vax fringe sites.
But feel free to disprove that by providing statistics from a reliable source with integrity – IF you can. Bet you can’t.
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine is made from dead, aborted, babies. This just out as Catholics are told to use another vaccine if possible. The consensus in the MSM is ‘nothing to see here’ cloned cells from an aborted baby in 1970 are used in all manner of medical testing’. I find it so creepy I would never use the J&J.
It’s made from a cell culture which has grown through thousands of generations of cells since the first original cells were taken from an aborted baby in 1972. A baby which was being aborted anyway.
But feel free to die from Covid if you feel strongly about that. Just don’t take a hospital bed from my relative who is having cancer surgery in May. Take responsibility for your own decisions – if you can’t breathe due to Covid which you’ve brought on yourself due to your dogmatism, feel free to suffocate to death in your own bed, don’t take a hospital bed.
…and I should add, that I don’t say this in any spirit of triumphalism or one-upmanship. My wife is Italian, and not only have my parents-in-law not been vaccinated, her 93-year old grandmother still doesn’t even have an appointment. If she were in the UK she’d have had her first dose in December.
What does “play a blinder” mean?
Is that good or bad?
Generally seen to be very good – sporting term.
Good. But clunky language on my part in retrospect!
I don’t think that even with a huge amount of Christian Charity one can explain away the actions of the EU Commission and leaders like Macron and Merkel. The article that appeared in the German press deliberately misrepresenting the AstraZenica vaccine was done for a purpose – probably to manage demand and a bit of anti UK propaganda – but I think it has massively backfired. Both Macron (who can be very childish and silly) and Merkel have double-down and made the problems worse. The French vaccine hasn’t worked and has been abandoned, but what is important is getting the vaccine rolled out. Boris, for all his faults, recognised early on that the vaccine was the ‘get out of jail’ card and he went hell for leather at it. As you say when the crisis is over all the other mistakes will be forgotten because people will remember that he got the vaccine right. Macron and Merkel have got that catastrophically wrong and people will remember that too. I hope it sinks Macron next year.
The one good thing to come out of this avoidable debacle is that the EU has not just publicly shot itself in the foot, but in both feet, the head, and the hands. Executing itself publicly in front of the British public in such a pique of arrogance and jealousy has effectively killed off any return to the EU from this side of The Channel. This debacle will always be remembered as the seminal moment when it became crystal clear to all Britons – Brexiteer or Remainer that the Rubicon had been crossed and there was no going back.
My greatest thanks to Von Der Lyen, Merkel, Macron et al for making the case for an independent Britain now irrefutable.
However, this has also set off a split in the EU and is already having many profound implications for the future of the EU. Not only have the British public witnessed the shambles that is Brussels but also the public of the EU countries have looked on bemused and confused. Now the cat is out of the bag that VDL, Merkel, and Macron are just cheap-shot, bunglers in the Covid crisis, we can see the famed EU unity is cracking daily with member countries egged on by their people to ignore the EU.
Already Eastern European members have become increasingly alienated from Merkel’s vision for Europe especially after the catastrophic influx of economic migrants from the Middle East. And it’s not just the east Europeans taking vaccination into their hands, but even countries like Austria are going their own way.
The EU at the greatest moment where they could have shown the benefits of unity and the effectiveness of the EU has been found seriously wanting. Worse still they have been caught playing politics with the lives of their members’ citizens. They have come across as shameless bullies with their empty rhetoric and poor vaccination plan, which has not gone unnoticed by the media in Germany and France. The case for even closer political union is now in the balance and trust has been shattered, so much so that even the fanatical federalist, Guy De Verhofstadt, is fed up with the EU.
Whilst we Brexiteers could rightly say “I told you so,” I think most of us are too grown up for that, and actually we should all be concerned at a weaker Europe in the future. A federal Europe will never work and the sooner the idea of a European superstate is rejected the better. We can all say amen to that.
From what I can see, most of you AREN’T too grown up not to say ‘I told you so.’ And, Richard Kenward, that includes you.
We told you so! But I’m tired of gloating now.
“There isn’t a country in the world that hasn’t got it wrong repeatedly — and the UK is clearly no exception.” If you lived in Western Australia, where I do, you might think that the government hadn’t done too badly: there were a couple of short, sharp lockdowns, and two weeks of mask wearing, otherwise life has gone on fairly normally for the past year.
Distinguish mistakes from fortune. The UK, as an open country with a LOT of international travel, with a very obese, diabetic (approaching US levels fast) and relative elderly population, was bound to get a bad case. Don’t know much about Australia – perhaps better ‘performance’ economy and death wise was down to super-smart scientists and politicians but I’m sure it was at least partly fortuna.
Agreed Michael. Likewise New Zealand; no doubt did the right things right, but also, as a remote country that’s not on the way to anywhere else, shutting down international travel wasn’t much of a lift or hardship in the way that closing Heathrow or JFK was.
The UK’s average age isn’t that high – something like 40 or 41. Compare that to Austria (43) or Italy (47). The absolute numbers of elderly people in the UK are of course higher than in Austria. Vitamin D is also supposed to be a factor…I guess vitamin D deficiencies aren’t as common in Australia as they are in the UK 😉
Australia have definitely done some things right. But it’s not fairly normal to have your citizens stranded worldwide unable to return home, or to tell them that they can’t leave the country. The UK seems to be working towards a way to live with a virus that is unlikely to disappear, whereas AUS and NZ are still largely doing what they did in the beginning. It’s looking more likely that short, sharp lockdowns and closed borders will still be in place, whilst other countries have their population vaccinated and free to travel.
I have a relative in WA who has a gravely ill relative in the UK. He is unable to leave WA due to Australian restrictions on travel so you might want to factor that in.
Russell magnificent though it is, WA is a state not a country. Although why you continue to “keep” those on the east coast is beyond me, perhaps because I live in Brexit Britain.
By all means tell me how good your wine, beaches, wildlife, education (5 unis for 2.6m people!?!) and economy (the mine) are but please there is no reason to crow about your politicians. In the UK we say that politics is showbiz for ugly people in Australia its more stand-up comedy for the unfunny. At the very least Covid has highlighted the folly of the proximity of their relationship with China. The state of Northbridge and the spy centre in East Perth seem problematic.
New Zealand has done amazingly well.
25 deaths compared to 120,000 in Britain.
Population ratio 1:13.
Deaths ratio. 1:4800.
AUSTRALIA, 35 DEATHS PER MILLION, CHINA 3 DEATHS PER MILLION. (worldometers) Wow, by hiding from the world you only had 11 times the rate China had, and they stayed open with millions coming and going internationally, except for the show lockdown in Wuhan so they could act all innocent.
Not to mention New Zealand just locked down Auckland, everyone there, over one Covid case. Nuts. Absolutely nuts. Now they are threatening to punish people for leaving a lockdown over one case. Sheer stupidity.
Utterly bogus, useless comparison. For an ex-scientist (as you claim), you should know and ought to do better.
Maybe he’s an ex-climate scientist.
Think you’re right. The parallels between Covid and climate change are becoming ever clearer.
Australia and NZ just proved they are a petty backwater globally in how they could, and did, just lock themselves from the world like a Brigadoon. I do not see that as anything to be proud of.
120,000 dead British people might disagree.
I don’t think the EU is so much narcissistic as it is religious. It is based on the notion that a small cadre of highly educated people are best placed to run society. Brexit is therefore a heresy and any evidence contrary to the received belief is to be treated in the same way as 19th century religions dealt with evolution. Philip Pullman may not like the analogy, but the EU is the Magisterium.
Note, however, my article on The Defender “UK Data Show 402 Reports of Deaths Following COVID Vaccines”: comparing the Oxford vaccine to the Pfizer it has an average 43% more yellow card reports, 77% more adverse reactions, and 25% more fatal reactions. I don’t have a great regard for EU institutions but I also don’t believe in national vaccine propaganda.
Does the impact of the increase in negative effects of the AZ, outweigh the increased risk of waiting longer for the pb vaccine?
If not, then it’s irrelevant.
I think it means that we don’t know what’s going on and most prefer to be spoon-fed information by politicians, medical bureaucrats and the mainstream media. The yellow card scheme will not tell you how many cases there really are (quite certainly many more than reported), but it will give you a relative profile of the products. In a normal dispensation we would expect to be able to probe every aspect of government data. It isn’t sensible if the public just prefers to close its eyes.
It does mean apart from anything that if people in the EU are complaining about the relatively unpleasant side effects of the vaccine the UK card scheme supports their concerns.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-data-show-402-reports-of-deaths-following-covid-vaccines
From this data source the highest possible risk of vaccine-related death associated with a first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 0.003% or 205 deaths in 6.9 million doses. Compare that with the risk of not taking the AstraZeneca vaccine. Isn’t that the point of risk calculations?
I am afraid that in pursuit of compliance we expect governments to hype one kind of threat and dismiss another kind. I would caution against abandoning a critical frame of mind when dealing with government sponsored information. You are not by any chance Sir Andrew Hall of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and former chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation?
PS It would be disturbing if the imperative to provide safe medicines were to be altogether abandoned in this febrile climate. On the face of it pharmacovigilance has been replaced pharmacosomnolence.
John, Andrew just blew your claim out of the water. Stuff like “I would caution against abandoning a critical frame of mind when dealing with government sponsored information” is just a way of saying that you prefer conspiracy theories to facts and data.
No, he didn’t.
Andrew’s comment: “the highest possible risk of vaccine-related death associated with a first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 0.003% or 205 deaths in 6.9 million doses. Compare that with the risk of not taking the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
John, Andrew blew you out of the water.
To start with a database of this sort will only give you a fraction of actual cases (and I suspect Chris C and Andrew know this). Secondly, these effects are just being dismissed as of no consequence despite 400 deaths. Thirdly, Oxford are just beginning to experiment on children despite their low risk from the disease and the relative unpleasantness of the product (no ethical problem there Eh?).
But, of course, even if there was any attempt to track the immediate effect of the campaign (which there isn’t) we don’t know anything about their safety at all beyond a few weeks, let alone their effectiveness. I am mindful of the several articles about this by Peter Doshi and his presentation to the BMJ seminar last week.
We used to be told that vaccines were “safe and effective”. that there was a “one in a million risk” etc and here we have 400 deaths with Andrew Hall and Chris C running around saying there is nothing to see. Well there is certainly something to investigate after 60k reports.
“we don’t know anything about their safety at all beyond a few weeks, “
The trials lasted months. So you are wrong.
“400 deaths”
From how many millions of people vaccinated? And who says they wouldn’t have died anyway?
“The trials lasted months. So you are wrong.”
What was the longest trial with published results?
”And who says they wouldn’t have died anyway?”
You, the MHRA or the MSM could dismiss every single death that way.
As I was reading your comment, I was thinking ‘someone will reply to the effect that the government is lying’ – and bingo.
113,000 people have died who didn’t have a vaccine. Are you sure you have taken that properly into account?
If you have a 10% chance of catching a disease that then has a 10% chance of killing you; or you could take a shot that has a 0.5% of chance of killing you – which should you do?
Be mindful that your answer could qualify you for a Darwin award.
I suspect we don’t have any reliable measurements of any of these things, however, people across Europe have complained about the side effects of the Oxford Astra/Zeneca vaccine relative to the Pfizer and this is borne out by the data: the data will probably give you a good ratio of the relative adverse effects of the products but is probably only a fraction of actual cases.
No, I would not attribute a high truth quotient to Johnson, Hancock etc. Busy awarding contracts to their friends while suppressing use of Vitamin D etc.
I am reminded of when Concorde was launched. As soon as British Airways/Air France tried to schedule a service, there was a legal challenge from pressure groups in America. They claimed all sorts of environmental issues.
The reality was of course that America did not have a supersonic passenger aircraft. That Concorde was simply far advanced over anything that America had and they were piqued. Of course for all the so called environmental concerns, the American Jumbo jet changed the economics of flying to the extent that millions now fly everywhere and aircraft pollution has caused incalculable environmental damage.
And also allowed the virus to spread all across the world from China in a matter of weeks.
On the contrary, 18 airlines placed orders including several US airlines including TWA, PanAm, Eastern, Continental, American, United and Braniff. Of course, we know that all 16 of the non British and French airlines subsequently cancelled their orders. The Concorde simply never sold as it was planned. I guess it could be viewed as a shame that millions now have the option to do what only very rich people could do before but I wouldn’t want to be in the position of trying to justify that view.
Also let’s not forget another act of Gallic petulance following the Air France Concorde tragedy in Paris in 2000.
Since AF decided it would discontinue its own Concorde service, it also ensured that British Airways would have to follow suit by effectively denying BA access to parts and related maintenance items.
Sure, Concorde never made money and would doubtless have been retired sooner or later. But it was very French behaviour to bring forward its demise. I die, you die.
Not completely accurate! Whilst, later, several other factors did come into play that caused the order cancellations, it was President Carter’s government’s refusal to allow the Concorde to overfly land because of ‘noise pollution from the double sonic bang’ that was the main factor. Many airlines’ routes were to the west coast so it made no sense if they weren’t able to fly it there. This decision was widely seen as a political act of protectionism to protect Boeing and give it time to further its own supersonic design. I was working at Filton on Concord’s (as it was originally called) design and development at the time and feelings against the US were very bitter as we anticipated what this decision would probably translate into.
It wasn’t allowed to fly supersonic over the UK either, for the same reason – sonic boom.
Not quite. The Concorde did land in the US of course. Specifically New York and Washington Dulles. And you’ve confused President Carter with the US Congress.
Of the 16 non French and British airlines who placed Concorde orders, all the airlines cancelled. Unless you’re claiming that the US forced the cancellation of orders from ten non US airlines, you need to look a bit deeper than pure politics. Your bitterness is not surprising, the US is frequently blamed for things like non US airlines cancelling orders. If you want to be bitter, be bitter.
Boeing, of course scrapped its supersonic effort. For many of the same reasons the Concorde failed, there simply wasn’t enough interest. And that was due to many reasons, not the least of which was cost and a serious crash.
I’m sure that US pique played a minor part in Concorde’s commercial failure, but the 1973 oil crisis was, I suggest, the main cause.
Given his past form and the failure of French pharma to produce a viable vaccine, Macron’s comments regarding the AZ vaccine were perhaps unsurprising. Merkel, on the other hand, has a scientific background. She has no excuse.
Merkel received her doctorate in quantum chemistry in 1986 and was a research scientist until 1989. If anyone knows ze korrect procedure for analysing scientific data she does. It serves to show how politics corrupts all it touches.
The attitude of many in the UK to Concorde has always been thoroughly blinkered. The legal challenges were not generalised ‘environmental concerns’. They were specifically arrival and departure noise in New York and the sonic boom over land. Plenty of US aircraft manufacturers and airlines have felt the wrath of the New York anti-noise lobby, not just Concorde – and well before Concorde. The challenges were not to put a limit on Concorde but to make sure no exemption to the existing limits were given.
The arrival regulations for Heathrow always (during my working life) had a special exemption for Concorde wherever a noise limit was stated. Usually in the form “…the limit is XXX EpNdb (except for Concorde)”. I recall attending a conference in a building over the Bath Road near the threshold of 28R when a Concorde departed. The entire building shook and not a voice could be heard for several minutes.
Concorde was a brilliant piece of engineering and as a pilot for one of the airlines which had options on it I looked forward to having the opportunity to fly it. Reality struck however and it wasn’t primarily noise. The per seat operating cost of Concorde over a year was approximately 5 times the 747 equivalent. It was simply uneconomical. The operating subsidy paid to BA by the UK government speaks for itself.
Get over it.
Concorde was just one of the many British post war aeronautical disasters. Anyone remember the Brabazon, the Princess Flyings Boats, the Comet, the Britannia, or even the VC10? Have I forgotten any others?
TSR2. But the Buccaneer was brilliant.
The TSR2 fell under the weight of the UK’s combined forces’ usual decision to try and make it a ‘Jack of all trades and a master of none’ aircraft. An impossible feat at the time. And politics, of course. Not to mention these turned it into an economic disaster, yes.
You seem very bitter. I infer from many of your comments that you enjoy denigrating the UK for some reason. Yes, as a child I watched the Brabazon overfly our home. It was an amazing sight. Yes, it was considered an economic failure – it was way before its time in terms of size and luxury etc. – but, because of the infrastructure required to manufacture it, the extended runway for it to take off, and the engineering knowledge that was gained, BAC, Bristol was able to have a jumpstart in constructing other designs such as the Britannia, which although delayed because of concerns over what caused the Comet to crash became the backbone of many airlines’ fleets for many years.
Many aeronautical engineering lessons were learnt from the original Comet’s failures, which benefitted all manufactures. One of which was not to use square windows. (I spent part of my design training working in Filton’s stress laboratory doing stress tests on these very windows out of which it was learnt that an oval design was required.) The eventual redesigned Comet 4 series was very successful as it remained in commercial service until 1981.
You also name the VC10. Engineering-wise this was an amazing aircraft. Its speed record for crossing the Atlantic was only broken LAST year! They were in service with BOAC and other airlines also to 1981 and it remained in the RAF’s strategic fleet until 2013. That doesn’t sound like a failure to me. Yes, BOAC, in hock to Boeing, tried to scupper it by cancelling its original orders; thus, making it economically a failure – if that’s your only benchmark for failure – but later they probably regretted that decision because the VC10 far outweighed the Boeing with its many advantages, and it was very popular with passengers. I have flown in it many times and it was a very pleasant and quiet experience.
To be fair, it really was very noisy, even coming in to land. Barnes Wallis, of bouncing bomb fame, thought it should have been designed to fly hypersonic and much higher, in that way cutting out the sonic boom entirely.
As there are unused Oxford vaccines in the EU, could they send them to the UK? At least we would use them!
They would be held up for six years by EU customs officials in an act of spite.
My thoughts entirely. After the fuss they made about AZ supplies to then actively undermine using them is unforgiveable.
No one has questioned the reasoning of Macron and France to ignore the proven benefits in December of the Pfizer/ Novatech vaccine in favour of the Anglo/French vaccine in early stage trials from Sanofi/GSK. This vaccine was due in February then trial data postponed the likely submission to September and as far as I am aware now December 2021. Yet he persuaded the EU, Ursula von der Leyen and her Brussels sycophants to take control and order millions of the untested Sanofi/GSK vaccines. Not the near completely effective Pfizer/Novatech vaccine.
Even worse the EU ostriches rejected the offer of millions of vaccines from Pfizer/Novatech.
Macron pursued national favour over good sense, then double downed by his asinine remarks on the efficacy of the AZ/Oxford vaccine. He appears to be a teflon President, whether its “gilets jeaunes” or Covid-19 if there is a bad decision to be made, you can rely on Emmanuel Macron to confidently make it.
Actually I raised these very points late last year! The word solidarity, of which the EU is excessively fond, has been shown by these actions and those of Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia etc – entirely understandable – to be as hollow as the space between Macron’s and Vd Leyen’s ears.
The whole Sanofi mess is yet another example of the French prioritising “national champions”. What has emerged is a painful loss of face for French science / medicine and a colossal setback for millions of EU citizens, all due to French chauvinism.
The EU have always been vindictive. They are full of failed socialist politicians.
Having said that, it would be better if the UK were also honest enough to tell us how many people have been adversely affected by thus injection. We know from the well respected doctors and virologists how this vaccine is a pathogen to break down the immune system. We also know how angry the care homes are at the number of deaths within weeks of injecting their clients, whom they had kept safe for the last year of Covid.
We also know that many front line staff are refusing to take it due to their knowledge of the disasters in Africa and India. Same vaccine……
however, the most important issue to be addressed in all this is the lack of democratic choice trying to be taken from the people of the so called free world. Never in my 73 years have I been coerced by propaganda to take a flu jab. Why is this so?? Why are those who want to be cautious and wait until the trials are completed, being treated as pariahs. Why is this Globalist government so keen to inject teenagers whose immune systems should be more than able to cope with a flu. Facts show that the under 50s very rarely contract flu.
Instead of praising the UK we should be asking why they want to follow the WEF in using people as guinea pigs for an injection that they have absolved all pharmaceuticals from blame or the law should anything go wrong. That to me, is not a good look.
We don’t know any of those things that you claim. Stop this fake news.
Yes we do. The fake news unfortunately, come from those who are not asking the questions. Have you wondered why influenza has disappeared and replaced by Covid.
have you wondered why we are told we cannot travel without a covid injection. Have you even asked yourself why we have been locked up in our homes for a virus that no one seems to be suffering from. Have you visited the hospitals. I have. They are empty.
Have you looked at the Funeral Associations funeral numbers. Below average yearly funerals. 1600 people sadly die every single day in the UK. So far we have something like 900 deaths per day and most of those are called Covid deaths.
There is a scandal breaking over the care homes. Watch UKColumn who have been following this since January. The deaths next year due to lack of treatment and diagnosis will shock many, but I suspect will be put down to Covid.
Stop putting your head in the sand. I have never had a flu jab and I don’t intend to be a guinea pig for something we know is coming down the road. You may try to watch Robert Kennedy’s harrowing videos on the terrible vaccine programme in Africa. Another Beauty as President Trump would say.
‘Have you wondered why influenza has disappeared and replaced by Covid.’
Because the measures imposed to suppress the transmission of Covid also suppress the transmission of Flu.
‘Have you even asked yourself why we have been locked up in our homes for a virus that no one seems to be suffering from.’
I know people who have contracted, suffered from and died from the virus.
‘Have you visited the hospitals. I have. They are empty.’
The outpatient areas of hospitals are empty as most outpatient appointments are now conducted by telephone or video. The diagnostic, inpatient and critical care areas of hospital are not empty. Yes, I have visited them.
“Have you wondered why influenza has disappeared and replaced by Covid.”
To the extent that influenza has diminished, it’s because the precautions we are taking against the more infectious coronavirus have suppressed transmission of influenza.
“Have you visited the hospitals. I have. They are empty.”
Lie
So when my brother in law died of COVID 5 weeks ago, he imagined it, did he?
Nutter.
Flu has not disappeared, total rubbish.
if you don’t know about those things, then it can only be by choice. There are numerous stories of people balking at or outright refusing the vaccine, just as there are stories of nasty side effects and deaths among some who had the shot. And we very much know about the campaign to force everyone into compliance.
Numerous stories – and where did you read or hear them. Well, there are millions of stories of people wanting and having the vaccine. Nasty stories – only in the minds of conspiracy theorists and anti vaxers !
This isn’t fake news if you are of an open mind and able to think for yourself.
I do and I know that the anti vaxers, conspiracy theorist and the other blah, blah lot have completely lost the plot
Judging from yet another incoherent rant by you, it’s the other way round.
“able to think for yourself”
Translation: believing nonsense from fringe websites run by nutters and Russian trolls (the latter being employed to try to create a situation whereby Russia is vaccinated with Sputnik V while the West is still flat on its back).
How do you feel about anti-vaxxers faking an image of a Times front page? What does it say about the anti-vax cause when it resorts to such tactics?
You do become ever more vituperative and bitter when you can’t get people to agree with your consistently credulous contentions. I am happy for you that you’ve been vaccinated.
Of course the Times episode if true is repugnant, but how do you know its provenance so certainly? I feel the same way about that as I do about disinformation and manipulated data, which has been a constant from this government and its advisers – starting with your hero Neil Ferguson.
You constantly refer to the UK’s apparently higher death rate. But if ever there were an example of disinformation or inaccuracy, then as numerous posters here have pointed out our ridiculous methodology for counting / classification of deaths as due to Covid makes us look worse than other countries. The same is true of testing.
I note you tend to skip commenting on such matters, despite a fairly prolific day’s posting activity today. You also cite New Zealand as a shining example of how to combat the pandemic; if ever there were a better example of a false comparison, that’d be right up there.
Spot on. All of it. New Zealand just locked down Auckland over ONE covid case. Madness.
There is an interesting article on Health Impact News regarding the Pfizer vaccine, Israel and the fact that its government failed to notify the population of the fact it is still in the experimentation stage. I hadn’t realised this.
“Health Impact News” is a fringe website run by one man with a grievance about a regulatory decision affecting his business. About as far from reliable as you can get.
The article on Health Impact News is sourced by statistics from the Israeli govt. The real question is why this info is not in the MSM and is forced onto small websites that are easily dissed as “fringe.”
Thousands of doctors worldwide have warned against having these shots, which are not vaccines at all. But you will not hear about this on the MSM. That is the scandal. These shots are experimental. Period.
Yet has the Israeli Govt stopped its vaccination programme in response to what you claim are its own statistics? No.
I think they know better what is going on in their own country than fringe websites run by eccentrics and axe-grinders, don’t you?
The vaccine isn’t mandatory. Just don’t take it.
“We also know how angry the care homes are at the number of deaths within weeks of injecting their clients, whom they had kept safe for the last year of Covid.”
You have a reference for that?
After all, opponents of vaccination faked a London Times front page (“Doctors and experts warn against having the experimental vaccine” or similar) in order to spread their lies. These people are astonishingly unscrupulous.
” Why are those who want to be cautious and wait until the trials are completed, being treated as pariahs”
Who do you think the trials are completed on? Aliens, goldfish? They are conducted on people like you and me. It is selfish beyond comprehension to demand others should be tested in their thousands before you allow yourself to be vaccinated.
PS I have had mine with no problems and I would highly recommend you have yours too.
This vaccine is a pathogen to break down the immune system! What total rubbish. You haven’t a clue what your are talking about.
I have just found the translation of humble pie for macron etc
merde en croute
trebles all round
There is a truly incredible (if true) story coming out of Germany right now. Apparently something like 90% of those in ICU and/or severely affected by Covid are of a ‘migrant background’. (There was a similar story in Amsterdam a few months ago, but that was only 50%, I think). The vast majority of these are muslim, even though they make up only 5% of the German population. Apparently the doctors say they are not allowed to talk about it.
So, an entire country and its freedoms, along with tens of millions of lives, are being sacrificed and put on hold due to the behaviour of one section of the population.
Please supply the reference.
If that is true it will not be long before the Fatherland resounds to the cry of
“Come back Adolph, all is forgiven”.
Whereabouts in St Petersburg do you live Fraser?
As time moves on, Brexit looks like it was inevitable rather than an error.
Time obviously hasn’t moved on, then. Atm it’s quite the shambolic farce I expected. BINO.
As a lifelong journalist the second I heard the German reporter interviewed on UK radio and TV I just thought the story had come from Brussells, as part spite, part effort to browbeat AstraZeneca into breaking the agreements with the UK, and others, to get the EU out of a hole they had dug.
Von der Leyen, and probably Martin Selymayr, leaked to cover the spectrum, but in a duo-exclusive to the main FT type paper Handelsblatt and the German *Sun*.
When AZ refused to be brow beaten a slight roll back was ruined by the laughable explanation that two separate newspapers had both confused 8% of those in trials being over 65 and 8% efficacy.
The regulators dragged their feet and then Macron came out with the most egregiously stupid remark based on no evidence at all that would obviously create chaos within Europe in respect of thevaccine uptake.
(I have left out the insanity of involing article 16)
The EU has destroyed it’s own supporter base in the UK through this far more effectively than anyone could ever have imagined.
The usual noisy suspects of the very over committed crew..who also have cash generating interest in keeping the rejoin ball rolling, will keep on going. But from here on in the EU have destroyed any pretence of moral superiority with their pitiful, incompentent but also venial efforts over this.
Over here they’re vaccinating at rapid speed and will still find reasons to keep us locked up till the end of the year, I’m sure. What does that say about the government’s confidence in the vaccine? And the people who support this because they’re so phlegmatic and scared by now that they find it hard to accept the thought of going back to a normal life again.
Is that something to be proud of? Is that not in some way pathological in itself?
Please…
The EU and Britain are as bad, or as sad, as each other, if anything.
Brexit will bring some advantages and some drawbacks. The UK will win some and lose some, just as the EU.
I’m so tired of this endless immature cognitive cockfighting- the race to win an argument.
As if Living through Covid wasn’t already exhausting enough.
To me it just shows that when push comes to shove the UK, the EU and everyone else just looks after their own and ‘progressiveness’ and ‘unity’ go out of the window
for all the talk of anti-vaxxer conspiracy it turns out Merkel and Macron are the worst spreaders of fake news
Re “There isn’t a country in the world that hasn’t got it wrong repeatedly”
The biggest way of “gettiing wrong” in most parts involved and still involves prophylaxis and treatment. Effective treatments were pooh-poohed by our medical “leaders” and bullhorns, and politicized.
This is the why of the major drop in confidence in what doctors now say and the leap in skepticism regarding all health “directives” coming from governments regarding these shots, and other issues. Including regarding the current shots. Furthermore, larger swaths of the public may finally be realizing that the shots are not vaccines, they h ave not been tested, and the public is now the trial population.
Ridiculous mask-wearing directives have not helped.
“the shots are not vaccines, they h ave not been tested, and the public is now the trial population.”
The vaccines have been tested over a period of months with tens of thousands of volunteers BEFORE they were approved by national regulators. Did you know that? If you did, why did you misrepresent the facts?
Well EU team thank you for dealing with Europes vaccine.
As a result of this we understand you are proposing to take it upon yourselves to run the Europe wide vaccine passport . And you propose this is up and running at the beginning of the summer -in eight weeks time. All you need to is to create a new digital system and collect the personal and medical details of 450million citizens in a couple of months.
In view of the vaccine affair you had better not fail.
Lovely catty prose from Mr Frankin. A joy to read.
Prix d’Or to: “whose cool-and-calm exterior conceals a heart of beating ineptitude.”
@ Peter Franklin,
What a mess, I agree.
However, you should investigate more before ending your article by selling vaccines as a saviour.
I wish the EU and the UK spent as much money on adapting the outdated public health as they do for vaccines. The last 30 years in microbiome research necessitates a radical shift in our model of human health. Microbiome is now understood to be the foundation of human health, rather than our now antiquated threat mode. That will unquestionably save lives.
As an observer from the USA I do not claim expertise. However, I note that Neil Ferguson stated recently that they have been doing “pandemic preparedness” ever since some conference or other years ago. Seems like their response was to *decrease* the number of ICU beds in the NH by hundreds of thousands.
This is not pandemic preparedness. This is crossing your fingers and hoping there is no pandemic or other circumstance that requires those (preexisting) beds. They did not just fail to create more beds—they actively eliminated beds. There has been an ICU bed crisis every winter in the UK, I have read.
Planning for an emergency means planning for redundancy and accepting the need for redundancy. It does not mean hoping nothing bad happens. And then hastily putting up a tent. Or not even managing to do that.
Ferguson and his pals: The Titanic Consultants.
Why does Ferguson even still have a job? I speak not even of his dodgy models.
Ferguson’s contribution to the field of pandemic preparedness was probably his Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium funded by Bill & Melinda Gates and GAVI to the tune of x100m of dollars, and yes real pandemic planning would have been about increasing hospital infrastructure, not to mention PPE etc. BTW pandemic planning was Jonathan VanTam’s government brief, which is never mentioned. What a guy!
I think you are confusing ten years of Conservative underfunding of the NHS with the policies of Professor Ferguson. NHS targets which were being met under Labour were being missed by 2019, before Covid came along.
The destruction in bed capacity has been continuing over several decades. I suspect Major and Bottomley were the worst but Blair made no attempt to recover the situation – and at least since 1989 the number of beds has only gone downwards every year including after bad flu years.
Beds cost money. But it isn’t just beds which I agree are woefully insufficient in the NHS. It’s everything, insufficient diagnostics, treatment, long waits, it all costs money. A lot of money. And there’s a certain pride evidenced by some who crow about low NHS spending in not spending the needed money to bring the NHS into 2021.
Of course, the beds are somewhat figurative: manpower, PPE, knowledge of how to treat disease without the intervention of imbecile bureaucrats. They were able to conjure up the beds quite rapidly as we know but unable to use them. As Tom Jefferson pointed out in an interview here we used to have specialist infectious disease hospitals till the early 90s. The big fake all along was that we had to wait for the “vaccines”. That might have taken ten years if at all, collapsed down to ten months with accompanying hate campaigns against anyone rationally sceptical of either the integrity of the science or the motives behind it all.
I have worked with EU representatives and this describes my exact experience of them.
Perfect article well articulating the facts and reality. To add any other comment could detract from the completeness and accuracy of the article. Thanks for writing what I know, but didn’t find the time to write.
Peter you capture the shameful situation eloquently. The Franco-German indolence driven by narcissistic preoccupations is certainly not their finest hour, I hope their populations are looking over their shoulders. If you weren’t pro BREXIT before maybe you are now!
When a people turn their lives over to Technocrats who believe they are infallible it isn’t before the people find out they are.
Er, no. The UK government didn’t follow scientific advice last February, it ignored advice it did not want to hear and followed craven advice that told it what it did want to hear.
Yes, and from what I recall Johnson was going on about any response having to take In – bae balanced with the needs of the economy, proudly going on about how he was shaking hands and generally behaving like a rabbit caught in headlights . Refusing to see what was coming- even though it was quite clear as the pandemic rolled on through Europe.
A view from across the pond. Looking at the UK v. the EU, one could conclude that the nation state is the politically and morally superior form of sociopolitical organization over a modern ‘benevolent’ empire (which is not, in fact, benevolent at all. It’s just an empire.). Nation states are a natural, organic coming together of people with a common way of doing things (culture), history and language. National affiliation is a good part of an individual’s identity, as well. Trying to legislate away a society’s and individual’s identity is folly. Now, many in Europe blame the nation state for the history of devastating wars, especially those in the 20th century. I do not. I think the blames rests upon Europe’s idiot and ever changing fashion in politics. That is an issue Europeans refuse to address and, in fact, have made illegal to discuss in certain topic areas in certain ways. So, the problem will persist unresolved. Boom.
The incompetence shown by the EU Commission and EU politicians in this matter is staggering but consistent with over many years. A main driver to escape the EU was to get away from EU incompetence and start holding U.K. civil servants and politicians to account.
The EU is a continuing disaster. Leaders (wrong word probably) that are not responsible to anyone and cannot be removed are a front for Germany who runs the show completely (giving Macron the odd guest appearance) and disregards any EU directive or policy it doesn’t like….e.g. car emission/VW scandal, vaccine procurement, gas pipeline direct from Russia, EU approval of Oxford AstraZeneca for all age groups. Looking back it amazes me to think how long it took me to see the light and switch from vote remain to vote leave.
One year ago to the day UnHerd published an article by David Goodhart, Farewell to Free Trade. It contained the sentence: “When a corona vaccine is eventually discovered, we will have to wait our turn in the queue as we no longer have a UK-based manufacturer.”
Heigh ho! What a difference a year makes.
well, it’s nice that some are finally getting around to realizing why many people were skeptical of govt from the start, why we saw claims that were basically guesses uttered as if they came from the gospels.
will ‘petty narcissists’ blush? I think not.
Enhanced security and economic “competence” will only come through a greater commitment than a “confederation”. The Yanks learned that lesson.
The EU will be trying any trick to show that leaving their club was a mistake. The last thing they want is for the UK to show itself to be better off and better organised otherwise other countries might get a similar idea and it all starts to unravel. Fortunately for us in the UK they have shown the opposite. Boris made a good job of appointing a competent manager to run the vaccine program. He needs to do more of the same in all areas of Govt. then maybe we can move on from here with increased optimism.
“…they’ll want to you fail without them. And, of course, that’ll be your fault, not theirs. It’s abusive and manipulating, but ultimately self-destructive.”
of course that will be exactly the M.O. when dealing with humans who would rather not take a vaccine for this particular illness, nor feel their children should have it imposed upon them.
If you want to bully your way through life be big like the EU. That can work a lot of the time (and breed resentment too). But if you want to actually get things done being a speedboat rather than an oil tanker is often an effective strategy. It also demonstrates how putting more and more power (and to be fair, responsibility) into the hands of ever fewer fallible humans, instead of dispersing the risk, has also historically been shown to be a bad thing. The wheel turns between localisation (speedy and inefficient) to centralisation (slow and inefficient) and back again.
Pettiness and spite by the EU is spot on. That has been shown by the confiscation of truck driver’s ham sandwiches at Calais (although plenty of Polish ham is travelling in the other direction) and the ludicrous rule that UK live shellfish which was acceptable in December is no longer acceptable in February. Worse, if the shellfish is caught by a French fisherman it can be landed on the Continent, but if caught by a British fisherman it has to be processed first.
Rubbish. People like you wanted the UK to be relegated to Third Country status, and the bivalve ban is a direct consequence. I’m sure you read The Express. Even that rag acknowledges this fact. Here – read for yourself. https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1404030/brexit-news-shellfish-ban-eu-fishing-boris-johnson-george-eustice-labour-party
To be honest, I’m not sure why we should care what the EU did or didn’t do. I’m sure they dont care what we did / didn’t do and I’m not at all convinced that their usual , tortuous way of addressing issues had anything at all to do with ‘spite’. Just business as usual. The EU just isn’t set up to deal with emergencies and I’m sure that in its current arrangements,
I’ll put it another way. Now it’s left, the EU is none of the UK’s business, and bitching about it is both juvenile and counter-productive.
Re. “Well, never mind — let them pay with their blushes. After all, their people are paying with their lives.” So cynical… and so sad³ and true. As a citizen of the world with a German birth passport, who has lived more in Far East and US than in Germany, I can only agree that the EU has finally lost its credibility and continues to make things worse rather than better. Neither is the German government doing anything better. Recap:
ACT1: Shanghai scientists published January 10th the genetic sequence of the virus. German scientists published 10 days later based on this the first PCR test. Two German companies, BioNTech and CureVac, and the US ModeRNA immediately begun to develop mRNA vaccines applying the Chinese published code for the spike protein of the virus, a technology first discovered 1999 by I. Hoerr, a Ph.D.student in Germany. AstraZeneca, J&J, Gamaleya Institute etc. started to develop vector based vaccines with the DNA code for the spike protein. The German government gives 750 mio EUR to BioNTech, CureVac and IDT for vaccine development. Sounds like a good start for Germany? The German government isy lucky by having it’s population be careful in the first wave, not because it was governed by a female like Taiwan and like NZ, who really understood early what is right to do to protect their citizens.
ACT2: A group of willing in the EU incl. Germany prepare procuring vaccines, but had to surrender to EU political correctness and hand over to EU. UvdL handed the task to S. Kyriakides and S.Gallina, instead accepting this MOST important leadership task herself with the help of pharmaceutical and biochemist R&D, manufacturing and sourcing experts. As a result petty bureaucrats negotiated niggardly as if they were buying pencils and paper, balancing national egoisms, instead of cooperating proactively with companies to look into the supply chain, manufacturing capacities and ongoing R&D results while the US, the UK enter into binding contracts, thus falling behind for months and the German government disappears entirely submitting itself to EU. BioNTech CEO proactively early offered 500 mio doses, EU denied.
ACT3: As the third wave in Germany begins to kill people’s lifes in December, as a result of Government being unable to introduce effective measures, vaccination is approved and being rolled out in the US, in the UK, soon in Israel with excellent results, valuable experience and data in a de facto “phase IV study”. The EMA considers, EU and German government are more concerned about prices rather than total cost of ownership (compare the cost for relief packages vs. the comparatively miniscule cost of vaccines), data protection and vague responsibility issues, until UvdL declares ‘Europe’s moment’, only a fews days later leaving everyone disappointed by being unable to supply vaccines, instead watching cremations, grave digging, people suffering acute and chronic consequences. EU begins a hectic blaming of AstraZeneca instead solving a problem cooperatively. An incompetent economic writer of the Handelsblatt, who does not have the patience to read numbers in a report correctly, probably mixes up numbers for the study’s age group percentages with efficacies and thus spreads lies. While people wait, wait, wait…get sick and die.
ACT4: German authorities approve the AstraZeneca only for the people <65 and mess up the roll out. Adding insult to injury, one lord mayor and his city council members receive vaccines before other prioritized groups. The group aged 65-69 has no perspective to get a vaccine anytime soon, and the group aged 70-79 may be after April. The new Marburg BioNTech, partly acquired and repurposed with German taxpayer money (see before) for BioNTech vaccine is up and supplies vaccine … hardly to Germany, to other countries, in and outside the EU. Well, the German government assuming moral high ground didn’t attach a condition to prioritize availability in return for payment. How would you feel as a taxpayer when a lifes saving product, enabled with your money, is sent to the rest of world? And, while in the US a new administration makes additional contracts to ensure that each and every US citizen can be vaccinated by end of May, the EU continues bureaucratic responsibility blaming instead.
ACT5: While watching the trio of incompetence UvdL, Sandra Gallina, Stella Kyriakides accepting no responsibility, while watching further infighting and inaction in the German government, what remains to do for me as I can neither change the EU nor Germany? Move my life to a better enlightened country, good bye Germany, good bye EU.
It can’t be a “de facto Phase IV study” since we’re firmly in a live Phase III trial, the results of which won’t / can’t be known until 2022 at the earliest after the vaccines licensed under Emergency Use Authorisation / Emergency Medical Use regulations (as opposed to full authorisation) have been around long enough and deployed sufficiently widely to generate meaningful statistical data.
When the vaccines have been observed sufficiently long enough for efficacy, side-effects and contingent mortality, then much more will be known empirically. Early signs are encouraging, but it is early days still. Anyone trying to claim unquestionable success at this early stage is jumping the gun for political or commercial motives.
That said, much to agree with in your prodigious posts!
Justification of our leaving the EU just became that much easier and other countries are looking on , yes the grass is greener and we’re off to pastures new
I was just reflecting that ten weeks after the UK completely left the EU I should be up to my knees in well-written and evidenced articles justifying, in your words, our leaving. But no. The best you and a gaggle of articulate Brexiters here can find to endorse your preference is sneering at the EU vaccine programme. Funny, that. Though I’ll grant you your blue passports.
In HongKong: bookings for the BioNTech vaccine opened on Wednesday at 9am. With 140,000 slots available for priority residents, the jabs will be offered from March 10 to 30 at seven vaccination centres operated by the Hospital Authority.
Through the BioNTech Fosun Shanghai cooperation (actually agreed even one day earlier then the BioNTech Pfizer cooperation) 100 mio. doses from Germany being sent to Fosun. Certainly happy for anyone in the world to get the vaccine.
The BioNTech vaccine development and production was supported by a 350 mio EUR support from the German government’s R&D budget last summer alone… but will not be available for months to come, and no vaccine at all for the 65-69 age group, that has no priority for the BioNTech vaccine and is not allowed to get the Astra Zeneca vaccine approved by the German authorities for ages <65 only.
India has launched a 49-nation “friendship program,” and China is shipping vaccine supplies across Africa nations, Turkey, and Afghanistan. As many as 50 countries have finalized agreements with Russia the Gamleya vaccine.
Probably, the chances to get a vaccine will be much better by taking the risk to travel to Russia to get the Gamaleya vaccine or to Shanghai to get the vaccine in a private clinic there?
Then, why does one stay and pay taxes in Germany, in EU?
Couldn’t the German government at least talk with either Astra Zeneca or with Gamaley how to produce more of the vector vaccine in other facilities to save its own peoples lives and avoid serious disease since it surrendered all else in Germany to an EU administration lost between bureaucracy and incompetence?
UvdL tells Thursday last week about ‘information’ that Apple and WHO were in talks about a digital vaccination passport. As a consequence, she suggests, that EU will offer ‘a European solution’. On Friday last week, Apple and WHO clarify that neither of them are involved in such talks. All this, while there is not a single worthwhile, effective Corona app even yet in the EU. How many more insults and injuries shall one endure? For my part, I decide to vote with my feet and rather walk away from domicile in the EU and Germany.
good by,
Good bye!
Re.the articles last sentence: “Well, never mind — let them pay with their blushes. After all, their people are paying with their lives.” So cynical… and so sad³ and true. As a citizen of the world with a German birth passport, who has lived more in Far East and US than in Germany, I can only agree that the EU has finally lost its credibility and continues to make things worse rather than better. Neither is the German government doing anything better. Recap:
ACT1: Shanghai scientists published January 10th the genetic sequence of the virus. German scientists published 10 days later based on this the first PCR test. Two German companies, BioNTech and CureVac, and the US ModeRNA immediately begun to develop mRNA vaccines applying the Chinese published code for the spike protein of the virus, a technology first discovered 1999 by I. Hoerr, a Ph.D.student in Germany. AstraZeneca, J&J, Gamaleya Institute etc. started to develop vector based vaccines with the DNA code for the spike protein. The German government gives 750 mio EUR to BioNTech, CureVac and IDT for vaccine development. Sounds like a good start for Germany? The German government isy lucky by having it’s population be careful in the first wave, not because it was governed by a female like Taiwan and like NZ, who really understood early what is right to do to protect their citizens.
ACT2: A group of willing in the EU incl. Germany prepare procuring vaccines, but had to surrender to EU political correctness and hand over to EU. UvdL handed the task to S. Kyriakides and S.Gallina, instead accepting this MOST important leadership task herself with the help of pharmaceutical and biochemist R&D, manufacturing and sourcing experts. As a result petty bureaucrats negotiated niggardly as if they were buying pencils and paper, balancing national egoisms, instead of cooperating proactively with companies to look into the supply chain, manufacturing capacities and ongoing R&D results while the US, the UK enter into binding contracts, thus falling behind for months and the German government disappears entirely submitting itself to EU. BioNTech CEO proactively early offered 500 mio doses, EU denied.
ACT3: As the third wave in Germany begins to kill people’s lifes in December, as a result of Government being unable to introduce effective measures, vaccination is approved and being rolled out in the US, in the UK, soon in Israel with excellent results, valuable experience and data in a de facto “phase IV study”. The EMA considers, EU and German government are more concerned about prices rather than total cost of ownership (compare the cost for relief packages vs. the comparatively miniscule cost of vaccines), data protection and vague responsibility issues, until UvdL declares ‘Europe’s moment’, only a fews days later leaving everyone disappointed by being unable to supply vaccines, instead watching cremations, grave digging, people suffering acute and chronic consequences. EU begins a hectic blaming of AstraZeneca instead solving a problem cooperatively. An incompetent economic writer of the Handelsblatt, who does not have the patience to read numbers in a report correctly, probably mixes up numbers for the study’s age group percentages with efficacies and thus spreads lies. While people wait, wait, wait…get sick and die.
ACT4: German authorities approve the AstraZeneca only for the people <65 and mess up the roll out. Adding insult to injury, one lord mayor and his city council members receive vaccines before other prioritized groups. The group aged 65-69 has no perspective to get a vaccine anytime soon, and the group aged 70-79 may be after April. The new Marburg BioNTech, partly acquired and repurposed with German taxpayer money (see before) for BioNTech vaccine is up and supplies vaccine … hardly to Germany, to other countries, in and outside the EU. Well, the German government assuming moral high ground didn’t attach a condition to prioritize availability in return for payment. How would you feel as a taxpayer when a lifes saving product, enabled with your money, is sent to the rest of world? And, while in the US a new administration makes additional contracts to ensure that each and every US citizen can be vaccinated by end of May, the EU continues bureaucratic responsibility blaming instead.
ACT5: While watching the trio of incompetence UvdL, Sandra Gallina, Stella Kyriakides accepting no responsibility, while watching further infighting and inaction in the German government, what remains to do for me as I can neither change the EU nor Germany? Move my life to a better enlightened country, good bye Sanford, good bye Germany, good bye EU.
Nice article, but Mr Franklin lets himself down falling into the unevidenced and very simplistic “lockdown should have been earlier” trap. He should read the following article in The Critic Magazine – brilliant clarity on why population wide NPIs were not considered to be an appropriate response to pandemics prior to the scary modelling driven Covid panic and subsequent blinkered following of the CCP approach:
https://thecritic.co.uk/mutant-variations-and-the-danger-of-lockdowns/
Finally! I wish I didn’t have to scroll down so far to find a repudiation of that part of the article. I have no idea how parts of the British media/political/academic classes have managed to convince themselves that the UK’s mistake was not listening to Ferguson earlier, given the overwhelming amount of data and evidence that all his predictions were wrong, have always been wrong, and given epidemiology’s total lack of introspection and near-zero commitment to the scientific method, will always be wrong.
Lots of analyses by now have shown that lockdowns had no effect whatsoever, there’s just no correlation between tighter/longer/earlier lockdowns and better health outcomes when the all country datasets are examined. Epidemiology should be very keen to investigate that mystery but the total corruption of the field ensures they’re in denial about it – actually exploring the science of why NPIs don’t work would require them to admit that their collectively bad advice, incompetence and lack of expertise just created a global nightmare of historic proportions. They will never admit this, so we can write epidemiologists off for a long time, in the same way previous generations had to write off phrenologists, leechers and witch doctors.
Unless or until the people’s of Europe realise that the EU is motivated by little more than the further accrual of its own power. It is willing to sacrifice the lives, wellbeing and the democratic rights of the citizens of EU countries to grab more power.
Neither democratic nor truly meritocratic, just a cosy club for insiders.
Does not the selection process of the Commission guarantee that the appointed individuals are archetypal compromise candidates? If ever the process comes up with a real leader, by accident or subterfuge, then the citizens of the EU genuinely lose control: for example under Delors.
Test to see if I am blocked
It would appear not.
Strange. I got blocked for no reason some months back and now I’m unblocked. Do you have any idea what has changed ?
A new system installed about four weeks ago, executed an amnesty for most, but not all, previous offenders.
Perhaps you qualified? I
You either prayed very hard or sent a cheque.
Canada followed the stupid lead of Germany and France on the AstraZeneca vaccine having taken over a month to pass it. The National Advisory Committee on Immunisation just recommended that the vaccine not be used for people 65 and over. but Health Canada did authorise its use for ALL adults. What is this craziness?
The discussion on effectiveness in the elderly is amusing, and omits a clear oversight – surely this information should be quite clear from the trials! Otherwise since the median age of death is 82, why are we giving it at all?!
.
Just spent an hour on the comments. The traffic is sparse, but there are plenty of Rolls Royces.
Well done for saying it as it is, the EU messed up their vaccine procurement so tried to steal our vaccines, when that didn’t work they resorted to ‘don’t want it anyway so there’.
Spite there may be, but the EU’s carefully hidden Napoleon complex also reared its head.
Why is closing the borders an “overwhelmingly horrible” choice?
Illusions,,British emperor, the king of clowns wins a war,,, and now what??
I can’t imagine politicians stooping so low to promote “their” vaccines which even those we in the UK paid for!
Hats off to Astra Zeneca and I hope that this great company get SPECIAL PREFERENCE.
They deserve it because the deserve to make up for all what they sacrificed for the benefit of mankind and and also to make up for the damage which the rubbish unconscionable EU politicians did to mankind!
Macron, Merrkel go away!
Re. “Well, never mind — let them pay with their blushes. After all, their people are paying with their lives.” So cynical… and so sad³ and true.
As a citizen of the world with a German birth passport, who has lived more in Far East and US than in Germany, I can only agree that the EU has finally lost its credibility and continues to make things worse rather than better. Neither is the German government doing anything better. Recap:
ACT1: Shanghai scientists published January 10th the genetic sequence of the virus. German scientists published 10 days later based on this the first PCR test. Two German companies, BioNTech and CureVac, and the US ModeRNA immediately begun to develop mRNA vaccines applying the Chinese published code for the spike protein of the virus, a technology first discovered 1999 by I. Hoerr, a Ph.D.student in Germany. AstraZeneca, J&J, Gamaleya Institute etc. started to develop vector based vaccines with the DNA code for the spike protein. The German government gives 750 mio EUR to BioNTech, CureVac and IDT for vaccine development. Sounds like a good start for Germany? The German government isy lucky by having it’s population be careful in the first wave, not because it was governed by a female like Taiwan and like NZ, who really understood early what is right to do to protect their citizens.
ACT2: A group of willing in the EU incl.Germany prepare procuring vaccines, but had to surrender to EU political correctness and hand over to EU. UvdL handed the task to S. Kyriakides and S.Gallina, instead accepting this MOST important leadership task herself with the help of pharmaceutical and biochemist R&D, manufacturing and sourcing experts. As a result petty bureaucrats negotiated niggardly as if the were buying pencils and paper, balancing national egoisms, instead of cooperating proactively with companies to look into the supply chain, manufacturing capacities and ongoing R&D results while the US, the UK enter into binding contracts, thus falling behind for months and the German government disappears entirely submitting itself to EU. BioNTech CEO proactively early offered 500 mio doses, EU denied.
ACT3: As the third wave in Germany begins to kill people’s lifes in December, as a result of Government being unable to introduce effective measures, vaccination is approved and being rolled out in the US, in the UK, soon in Israel with excellent results, valuable experience and data in a defacto “phase IV study”. The EMA considers, EU and German government are more concerned about prices rather than total cost of ownership (compare the cost for relief packages vs. the comparatively miniscule cost of vaccines), data protection and vague responsibility issues, until UvdL declares ‘Europe’s moment’, only a fews days later leaving everyone disappointed by being unable to supply vaccines, instead watching cremations, grave digging, people suffering acute and chronic consequences. EU begins a hectic blaming of AstraZeneca instead solving a problem cooperatively. An incompetent economic writer of the Handelsblatt, who does not have the patience to read numbers in a report correctly, probably mixes up numbers for the study’s age group percentages with efficacies and thus spreads lies. While people wait, wait, wait…get sick and die.
ACT4: German authorities approve the AstraZeneca only for the people <65 and mess up the roll out. Adding insult to injury, one lord mayor and his city council members receive vaccines before other prioritized groups. The group aged 65-69 has no perspective to get a vaccine anytime soon, and the group aged 70-79 may be after April. The new Marburg BioNTech, partly acquired and repurposed with German taxpayer money (see before) for BioNTech vaccine is up and supplies vaccine … hardly to Germany, to other countries, in and outside the EU. Well, the German government assuming moral highground didn’t attach a condition to prioritize availability in return for payment. How would you feel as a taxpayer when with your money enabled product is sent to the rest of world? And, while in the US a new administration makes additional contracts to ensure that each and every US citizen can be vaccinated by end of May, the EU continues bureacratic responsibility blaming.
ACT5: While watching the trio of incompetence UvdL, Sandra Gallina, Stella Kyriakides accepting no responsibilty, while watching further infighting and inaction in the German government, what remains to do for me as I cannot change the EU not Germany? Move my life to a better enlightened country, good bye Germany, good bye EU.
So you think the most important thing is to be govenrened by a female? Well, the UK *is* goverened by a female – Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth. We just need to remove the government and give absolute powers to Her Majesty , that should send the virus packing all right.
Not at all, I believe in the power of science and leadership trusting and listening to expertise. Please: read my text and you will realize that I referred to the blunder of EU female trio of incompetence, UvdL, S.Kyriakides and S.Gallina and Merkel’s government as a negative example proving the myth of female leaders being better than male wrong, notably vs. the succes of Taiwan, with president Ms. Tsai Y.W. 蔡英文 and vice president Mr. Chen C.J. 陳建仁, epidemiologist himself. Taiwan gave the world the best example in handling this pandemic against all odds.
All the politically correct, published ‘analysis’ celebrating the handling of the pandemic by ‘female vs. male leaders’ because the three countries Germany, Taiwan and NZ being led by female leaders was proven irrelevant and mere coincidence by the EU commission members’ incompetence, i.e.the female trio vdLeyen-Kyriakides-Gallina and Ms. Merkel’s (cum her 16 state prime ministers’ and health minister’s) failure in the second wave and ignoring expertise to support a timely preparation of sufficient manufacturing and supply chain for roll out vaccines in Germany.
OK, I misunderstood you. Just as well. No ill-will, I hope.
Leave won, we left. Get over it and focus on England’s problems.
‘About a year ago, Britain (sic) should have gone into lockdown at least two weeks before it actually did. However, our Government was acting on official scientific advice that was unfortunately wrong.’
Early September 2020 our Government acknowledged cases were on the rise (around the end of eat out to help out policy) – Schools were opened – Students were still sent to Uni – people were still being told to go back to work. This was against the advice of many scientists and non-scientists. Not until the end of October was a lockdown announced – then tiered – then imposed again. By September it was explicit that decisions on lockdowns were for Government to make advised by scientists. (as they always were)
83,000 people have died due to Covid (according to Doctors entering information on death certificates – not the 28 day test figure) since mid September 2020. More than the 57,000 who died from February to September 2020.
The gloating on how badly others are doing in this article is particularly unattractive given the relatively high death toll in England and is a diversionary tactic to avoid dealing with our own outrage and the scandal of our own Government’s culpability in those deaths.
I use England in the above to differentiate between the actions of UK government and devolved assemblies which is something Franklin seems to have forgotten about.
They have not died from Civid they have died with it!!!
Not according to the Doctors completing the death certificates. Or are you saying doctors lied 140,000 times?
in the US, no less than the CDC said roughly 94% of victims died WITH covid. And in one Colorado county, the covid toll included a pair of gunshot victims, so yes, doctors occasionally fabricate things.
With an insurance based healthcare system I’d expect no less!
what does that have to do with anything? Deaths from vs those with are real points of demarcation that are hardly exclusive to America.
Doctor income – dependent on amount of billable activity they can log in an insurance based system.
As opposed to our highly politicised one?
As opposed to our democratically politically accountable NHS, yes.
While in contrast, in the US the healthcare industry pays off the politicians with campaign contributions, and those politicians who don’t toe the healthcare industry’s line don’t get contributions. Given that in US politics, if you can’t spend tens of millions on even small-scale race such as representing a Congressional district, you lose and become an ex-politician, it’s the politicians who answer to the healthcare industry, not vice versa as in the UK.
One US health insurer alone made approaching $10 billion in profits in one year. Allocating even 1% of that to “defending our company’s business” buys a lot of lobbying – and politicians.
I’m afraid many of the Death Certificates are nonsense. Even where there is a negative test result (either known before or after death) many are being labeled as Covid related merely on a whim. This has grossly inflated the death rate in the UK. Also because the NHS have used a high number of cycles on PCR tests, this has produced excessive positive results. Following a WHO advice note in mid January warning against this, you will note across the Western World that the infection rates have dropped dramatically. This drop began before vaccination began.
Bravo!
*Bows*
Bullseye!!!
I have read of the reduction of cycles for the PCR test.
Has our government actually stated that they have reduced the number?
Does anyone know?
They haven’t. PHE declines (refuses) to publicise, but word from within the NHS is that >35 and higher is and has been the norm. Hence our world-leading “case” count which has driven and will drive what passes for strategy or public health policy in the U.K.
At least the Germans have woken up to this: google the Corman-Drosten report for state prosecutor-led dissection of the weaknesses and falsehoods of PCR testing, disowned by even its inventor. There is considerable attention paid to CT levels and how they can be used to game the tests.
Hardly any coverage in the U.K. of course.
Do you know what guidance is in place during a pandemic for medical practitioners certificating death? It’s not about telling lies. It’s about following orders. If it’s got COVID like symptoms, then in a pandemic, it’s COVID unless proved otherwise and no one is looking to prove otherwise. Cremation. Memorial. Game over.
As in lockdown. Normal rules no longer apply.
Think about it like the police record hate incidents. It doesn’t matter what happened. If anyone thinks it is a hate incident, it is recorded as a hate incident based on any persons belief, even if the facts suggest otherwise.
Hence some people have demanded that COVID is removed as cause of death. Not because the medical practitioner lied, but because they are in a pandemic situation that makes the default COVID.
Don’t take my word for it.
The fact remains they die WITH Covid not FROM covid
Yeah, when they suffocate to death due to having the Covid virus, it’s not Covid. It’s malaria, or maybe kidney disease.
And when they die within (28 – or lower) days of a Covid vaccination, it’s not the vaccine – it’s, of course, natural causes. Or even Covid itself. What did Capt. Sir Tom Moore die of?
So you can die of pretty much anything within 28 days of an unreliable PCR test with an absurdly high CT setting and your cause of death is Covid? What about dying of untreated cancer, pneumonia (Germany’s choice of death classification in the pandemic), bronchitis, dementia – all of which was deprioritsed by our sainted NHS which has been and will be a Covid only service for some time?
And shouldn’t the Royal Mint be striking a new coin or the PO printing first day of issue stamp collections to celebrate our victory over influenza?
Yes and the cases of auto accidents and drownings that were characterized as covid deaths because the person tested at the hospital but they died in an auto accident. Not of covid. Plenty of people had covid and never even knew it.
Precisely. Madness. Or, worryingly, method?!
And it appears 40% of cases were infection caught in hospital (the NHS has never been any good at infection control – ask my grandmother who went into hospital for a routine treatment and was then infected with MRSA and never came out alive).
This site has so many weird things going on. The above comment should have said…same with nursing homes in some US states. Bone headed governors basically killed thousands of people.
They are busy/lazy and played safe. But doing that hasn’t been good for statistics. They were counting wrong from the very beginning & after an Oxford Prof pointed out the error they had to recount and took 5000 deaths off the count in the first wave. I suspect the counting still hasn’t improved.
Well said!
Spoken like a true Scotsman.
I agree. The article, and the majority of Comments here simply ooze spite! Shocking. It might be human, all too.. to need to rubbish the the EU, but it comes across as a small tyrant stamping its foot. I mean Europe has only got a few centuries worth of centrifugal nationalisms to try to coordinate, no mean feat! So they handled this badly. Is it worth an article? I think it’s a pity the UK left. You rubbed each other up the wrong way but maybe that’s not such a bad thing for either Britain or the EU. ( A bit less ‘solidarity’ in the EU and a bit more in the UK.)
As I see it, the real and urgent problem for Britain is how much of itself already belongs to China. And whether that is a better deal, in the long run.
I think that what would have been the right thing to do, and when, at the various stages over the past year is a very complicated question which can only be looked at when all the data is in and the World has a much better understanding of the course of this disease. It has become an unquestioned truth that the government was late into the first lockdown: I don’t think that is certain in terms of lives lost/saved, and I certainly don’t think it was clearly the right thing to do on the basis of the information then available.
Totally agree. The whole article reads like some desperate attempt to just spin a story about how nasty the EU is and in the process show that we are the nice guys. Personally, I really doubt that the mess they find themselves in was ‘driven by spite’. The EU works on a rather slow labyrinthine basis and just can’t deal with immediate emergencies .
There have been some howlers (the German newspaper report of 8% effectiveness for Astra Zeneca) and some daft stuff from Macron (AZ useless for the over-65s), These are actions of individuals in EU member states, not EU actions as such. And there is one EU action which counters all this: the approval by the EMA of the AZ vaccine for all adult age-groups.
What’s wrong in principle with 27 countries getting together to use some market power against pharma companies who are in a potentially overwhelmingly string position? Admittedly one inevitable downside is that 27 can never move quite a quickly as the UK or Israel on their own, but that’s not an argument for rubbishing the whole EU purchasing exercise.
What really annoys me about this piece and much of the discussion is the obsessively anti-EU positions so often expressed. I could understand this when the UK was a discontented EU member. But you are no longer a member, and the more I hear of this nonsense the more I am inclined to say good riddance. Just let the rest of us in the EU manage our own problems and have a little good manners when dealing with your neighbours.
I speak as someone (form Ireland) whose country has suffered immense collateral damage from Brexit. I can live with that, but just go away into whatever global fantasyland you want and leave us alone.
Completely agree with you. It’s an embarrassing bit of tabloid type rubbish ( and I voted leave)
Exactly. As I commented, it’s The Express with long words.
And you? The Guardian with sour grapes? The EU spent 4 years using the Irish border as a cynical negotiating tactic during Brexit. If it had been so genuinely important, perhaps share with us the justification for abandoning it and throwing our Irish friends under their blunder bus in a mere 4 weeks.
Not gloating; merely exposing this craven, anti-competitive cabal for the rotten husk it truly is, prepared to sacrifice the health of its own to save face and lashing out viciously when its shortcomings are exposed.
I guess the view from Qislington is unchanged, but their pathetic behaviour shows the case is altered.
Are we are all to be used as cannon fodder for bureaucratic mistakes? Britain, for once, did a good thing and is beating the virus, and the EU has mucked it up for dogmatic and political reasons and cannot admit its mistakes and change tack. This article is a bit too pleased with the situation but the facts are essentially correct and they do indicate a significant problem. Reforming the EU without the UK on board will take better skills and logic than was exhibited here, in a life and death situation. Letting 27 nation states do their own deals and sharing excess doses obtained would have been a better strategy playing to individual strengths. Insisting Brussels is best is definitely the attitude observed but it is not clear what the world beating benefits are, other than as a conduit of funds from rich to poor members. That much should be obvious now.
No, if the EU “mucked up” it was for organisational reasons (i.e. a co-ordination problem) and not for ideological or political reasons. If 27 member states did their own deals I can guess that the larger ones would do fine, but the smaller ones might have more of a problem. And sharing the excess doses between them might be fun: I can see the French saying to us: “OK you want vaccines, just change your corporate tax regime” That’s why the EU is rules-based. The law of the jungle can get pretty nasty. If Trump were still US President you might find out how nasty!
I take it you are joking when you say the EU is rules based.
The relevant rule in this case is that the EU has no competence in health matters.
Who authorised this change to give the EU competence? It must have had the nod from both France and Germany – certainly there was no democratic input into the decision.
The length of time taken by the EU to actually order any vaccine surely shows the disadvantages of an EU approach?
I would conclude, that the idea that if everybody can not have a vaccine, then it is better that nobody has one is exactly an ideological approach.
I have no doubt that if the boot was on the other foot we would be hearing about it.
Lots wrong in this sentence. What’s wrong is:
You say it’s inevitable the EU can’t move as quickly. It’s interesting to see that tradeoff be expressed because I don’t recall such a thing ever being admitted by the pro EU side before, ever. Instead we were told it’s one sided: the EU will always win at whatever it does over the UK, because it’s big. We would always be at the “back of the queue”, to quote a famous US president. That logic has turned out to be completely incorrect.
You say “that’s not an argument for rubbishing the whole EU purchasing exercise”. In fact it is. Remember the only thing that matters is speed. There is no other factor, because lockdowns are so overwhelmingly destructive as an alternative approach. The EU has eventually made the same decisions as the UK in nearly all cases, except I think the large spacing between shots, yet it made them slower thus creating far more economic damage.
Finally you say, “Just let the rest of us in the EU manage our own problems and have a little good manners when dealing with your neighbours“. Gee, that would be nice. The EU has had nothing but terrible manners towards the UK for the last 5 years. Everything it has said and done has been with the attitude of “submit to us now because might makes right”. It has burned bridges left right and centre with no regard for what anyone in the UK might think. Ireland being a part of the EU was also a part of that – your leadership has made no attempt at being friendly or staying out of UK business. People won’t forget the threats to close Irish airspace to Britain anytime soon. Fundamentally the EU sees the UK as a rival to be suppressed, not a partner. Unless that changes, you will have to get used to the UK responding in kind.
As someone who lives outside the UK I find many of the views on the EU expressed in Unherd and the DT be be quite extraordinary and detached from reality.
At the end of the day there are only 2 fundamental aspects to sovereignty, namely the right to impose taxes and the right to use force to get the population in a defined territory to comply with law.
The EU has no army, no police force, no tax collectors and no prisons. It is entirely dependent on it’s member states for each and every aspect of tax collection, security and law enforcement. It has no legal competences in education, culture or health. (With regard to the vaccines issues, it was the smaller countries that pushed for the Commission to become involved as they feared they’d be squeezed out by the big boys).
The entire staff of the EU Commission number less than those employed by Manchester council.
The EU budget is about 1% of the combined GDPs of the member states.
How such a benign effectively powerless (in the literal sense) entity has been built up in the minds of so many to be such ‘a grasping bureaucratic monstrosity’ defies rational explanation.
But I suppose as David Hume wrote: “Reason is, and aught to be, the slave of the passions”.
So I guess it is unreasonable of me to expect a rational explanation for the animus towards the EU.
Bravo! And thank you for the data.
That’s a good post that makes a rare argument.
However I don’t think it’s correct. The EU’s first meeting after Brexit ignored the fact that the UK had chosen to leave, and instead spent most of its time on the suddenly urgent need to build an EU army to replace NATO, the primary difference being that the EU army would be controlled directly by the Commission. The EU already has its own embyonic intelligence agency with counter-terrorist cells (EU INTCEN), and its own police force (Europol), which doesn’t need to be large because the Commission is the ultimate source of law, as such their rules are automatically enforced by the nation states police and regulatory infrastructures.
The EU also has tax revenues that accrue directly to itself, the so-called EU “own revenues”. Search for “The Union’s revenue”, a factsheet on the EU Parliament website, to see a listing of the EU’s directly controlled tax resources. As for “powerless”, any organisation that controls the courts which sit directly above every other court and also makes its own law unaccountable to any actual Parliament (the so-called EU Parliament not actually being one), can never be seriously described that way. It’s a nice try, but I don’t think you’re going to convince anyone that an organisation with a history of describing itself as “imperial”, which now controls the most critical health matter in Europe and which is well on its way to having an entire army report directly to itself, with no elections that can seriously control it anywhere in view, is not a serious problem.
Well, I expected better than gloating, spite’s ugly twin. Peter Franklin is just The Express with long words
More ‘unherdlike’ thinking here today … or not. I will wait until all this is all over before any rush to judgement. There is much more that will come to light as the dust settles. The pandemic one might suspect is covering a multitude of sins / incompetencies as much at home, as abroad, and beating the anti-EU drum after we’ve left conveniently allows the fourth estate to urge the plebes to ‘look over there’. The last line of the article is particularly nasty, and ironic given it is written from the nation with the highest death toll from Covid in Europe.
I think we would all agree that the UK’s apparent vaccination success is indeed covering up a multitude of sins and incompetencies. Even so, it is nice to see a British government getting something right for the first time in almost 40 years. As for the Covid death toll, the figures have bene massively overstated in the UK and elsewhere, with the deaths of countless people who died of other causes being attributes to Covid.
Excess deaths are not overcounted though, and while the UK isn’t #1 on that metric, it’s doing pretty badly, about equivalent with Spain and Italy.
Spain’s numbers are untrustworthy. El País newspaper flagged this in July; there was – then – a roughly 60% discrepancy between official numbers and the aggregate total from death certificates filed at civil registries across all 17 autonomous provinces and regions.
Other countries have methodologies that will understate deaths, as if this were some grotesque international league table. Conversely in the U.K. we seem to want to overstate ours and hover around the top (or the bottom, according to your perspective).
The same goes for testing.
Do you think it’s possible that people may have died of diseases like cancer and cardio vascular events because they could not get diagnosed and treated during COVID? Plenty of other medical care was put off as hospitals were overwhelmed. Those may be people who would not have died had they been treated but they are not COVID deaths. Same with suicide, in the US we are just beginning to look at the costs in suicide deaths of states that had stringent lockdowns, and still do.
As I said, better to wait for the dust to settle fully first. The high UK death toll is an obvious consequence of large population on small island but also an initial (months long, Calvinistic almost) attitude of ‘we don’t get sick, like Johnny Foreigner’) V. a more cautious approach by EU. The UK vaccine success thus far is welcome, no doubt. The spinning of this ‘victory’ into a hammer with which to beat Johnny Foreigner while he’s down (nasty), as well as a cover for other ongoing government messes and the unfolding mess of Brexit is not as excusable. Do the British people really believe that we are being served well by this v. herdlike government/media approach? The Trojan work of medics aside, do the people really want to be led by political types who would stoop so low?
Complete and utter ba11s. You made that up lock, stock and barrel. Shame on you.
Brexit has happened – get over it.
Just a coincidence most of them died while showing the symptoms of Covid.
“the deaths of countless people who died of other causes being attribute[d] to Covid”
You have a reference for that?
That’s happened here in the US too, people counted as COVID deaths even when they actually died of something else. Like a car accident. Don’t forget, there’s $$ involved if it can be counted as a COVID death.
But the author of the article does acknowledge that the UK decision-makers made mistakes. The contrast he highlights is between (i) mistakes made in a crisis through lack of information or imperfect advice, and (ii) deliberate wrongful actions.
Fiasco (forcing the abandonment of national efforts to protect citizens in order to prove EU solidarity). Outrage (shifting blame to the UK, threatening Ireland border closure). Scandal (no resignations by those responsible). Lies about the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Millions of doses of the very vaccine that the EU were threatening the UK over are now sitting unused in the EU.
These are not mistakes that were forced by the unexpected or imperfect information. They are deliberate bad decisions that are structural to the nature of the EU. The EU’s (or probably Mrs Merkel’s) high-handedness in taking decisions from national governments just to prove a point about EU solidarity; illegal threats about the Irish border; lies about the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the UK’s decision about spacing of doses.
All while EU citizens’ lives are at stake: the last line of the piece, to which you object.
Again, these are not mistakes. They are the EU’s deliberate actions, motivated by pride and spite.
Yep, ‘look over there’ is clearly working where you’re concerned. Who’s threatening the NI peace agreement at the moment, remind me again.
In Northern Ireland the GFA has been broken by the EU – because of the new border controls – and this is effectively an EU blockade of NI from the UK
“The contrast he highlights is between (i) mistakes made in a crisis through lack of information or imperfect advice, and (ii) deliberate wrongful actions.”
When Boris Johnson was advised by SAGE in mid-September to institute a two-week lockdown, and he defied the scientists and described the proposal as “ridiculous” because Labour had backed it and because Boris was under pressure from know-nothing backbench Tory MPs who can’t face reality, that was not “mistakes made in a crisis through lack of information or imperfect advice“, it was “deliberate wrongful actions“.
“Threatening Ireland border closure”
Just a tad more on that. No consultation with UK government. More embarrassingly, no consultation with Republic of Ireland, their own member state!
Unforgiveable. They either have no steer on history (uneducated) or they care little for the consequences (abhorrent).
Actually Belgium had the highest death toll in Europe. It’s what you’d expect as, like the UK, it’s a global hub.
The last line of the article maybe nasty but it’s correct.
Leaving aside ‘jokers’ like Gibraltar or San Marino, the UK is currently lying third in the ‘Corona Gold Cup’, lagging Belgium second and the Czech Republic out in front.
Belgium has the highest death toll per million population. The UK has the third highest death toll per million in the world, out of 152 tabulated (last time I looked), making it worse than every European country apart from Belgium and Slovenia.
The UK has the highest death toll in Europe in absolute terms, even though Germany for example has a much larger population.
See my other reply to you. This is distorted, albeit it suits your narrative.
Dum, Spiro Spero
“their people are paying with their lives”
That final statement is pretty hysterical and definitely not very nice. In fact, it’s quite horrible. The author makes some unfounded comments regarding lockdowns and border controls (typical, sensationalist rubbish) but then makes crass statements about people dying, as if this were all merely some political point scoring game. Thankfully, Covid is massively in retreat, with or without vaccination, so the EU’s calamitous roll-out will make little difference to mortality, assuming they get it sorted before next winter. Which we all hope they do, of course, because no one is so horrible they want people to die to prove their point.
But the EU leaders did want people to die to prove their point. That’s what happens when you trash a vaccine and older people don’t take it. Some will get ill and die.
If you believe various EU governments – not least the German, French and Dutch governments – the virus is not ‘massively in retreat’. Two of these countries still have strict curfews and in Amsterdam they are blocking the entrances to the park in order to stop people mingling. Meanwhile, the virus in rampant in the Czech Republic, as outlined in a Spectator article yesterday.
As such, the EU hubris and incompetence that has led to the delay in vaccinations is most certainly costing lives and businesses.
The EU handling of the AstraZeneca vaccine has indeed been a sorry spectacle.Still, some perspective would help.
3 of these points are weak
a. If having 1 process for 27 countries is that hard, this is an argument for having 27 separate national processes. The success of Serbia proves that the founding idea that small countries would be crowded out was wrong.
c. Whataboutery. Most attempts at blame shifting don’t end in large numbers of deaths. Can you point to any ?
d. Unfounded whataboutery. Most of the deaths that result from this will be in the EU, not in the UK. How can you justify causing deaths among your own population as retribution for past acts by UK politicians?
The success of Serbia proves that if you are small, unaligned, and willing to deal with rival superpowers you can get yourself a good deal. If 27 countries of various sizes try the same trick, the price goes up, and many do get crowded out. These choices have no influence on the amount of vaccines available, only on who gets them first.
For the rest, the Johnson’s dithering and delay is thought by many to have cost tens of thousands of lives. Rather than asking ‘how you can justify that’, I will just note that irrationality and incompetence is not unknown in politics, on either side of the English Channel. No reason to go overboard about a single convenient case.
Always this obsession that the EU is the world.
There aren’t 27 countries trying “the same trick” (whatever that means). There are about 190. Where’s your evidence that the other 163 you’ve not considered are paying up and / or being crowded out? The UK is one of them and neither has happened. Serbia is another, ditto.
This capitulard, Chauvinist, almost Quisling insistence that the remote, undemocratic, hostile and unaccountable EU is always right is one of the reasons Remainerism is so tied – disastrously in electoral consequences – to leftism, wokeism, and Corbynism in the public mind. It is a red flag that the speaker almost certainly holds a full hand of other opinions that normal people find repulsive.
How about common sense? There is a vaccine shortage, and the government actions we discuss are not producing more vaccines. Do you have evidence that Moldova, Chad, or Thailand have as good access to vaccines as your average EU country? What normally happens when many separate buyers are desperately competing for a scarce good with few sellers?
It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when you’re celebrating success on the basis of outperforming ‘Moldova, Chad, or Thailand’. I’d feel nothing but shame were I an EU leader.
Redman claimed that each country going it alone would be a win-win situation, no one would be crowded out or squeezed on price. Apparently he thinks that all countries can be Israel or Serbia – at the same time. He asks for *evidence* that non-EU countries are being crowded out of access to vaccines.
I think I provided it.
Except that Corbyn was a covert Leaver.
And in 1983, Michael Foot and Tony Benn campaigned for Britain to leave the EU. It took British right-wingers a third of a century to realise that Michael Foot and Tony Benn were right.
“Dithering and delay” is not cynical blame shifting. The article does a good job in explaining why these are two different types of mistake with different moral qualities.
The price of the vaccine is irrelevant for any of the 27. The benefit far, far outweighs the cost for all of them.
Note also that this isn’t a zero sum game, if the EU had committed earlier it would have increased the worlds total supply.
As it is, its elite’s Trumpian behaviour has further reduced the global supply. AZ vaccine in Germany and France has gone unused. This is criminal as it could have been given to COVAX.
“if the EU had committed earlier it would have increased the worlds total supply.” Really??? Are you saying that drug companies held back on producing vaccines because they waite for the EU to sign a contract? That calls for some supporting evidence.
As for cynical blame shifting, that is a really nasty thing to do. We must be thankful that the morally upright UK Prime Minister and his Brexiteer supporters would never stoop so low.
AZ has stated this repeatedly. Companies only begin mass production when they have a contract.
AZ says that the process of setting up the supply chain in the EU and clearing the issues with production was delayed for several months by the EU’s prevarication. That’s why UK factories are producing more than the factory in Belgium.
Once again, what does Johnson’s low morals have to do with the EU killing its own citizens? Does it mean it didn’t happen? Or does it mean it is OK?
OK, that moves it from ridiculous to just about possible. A point to you.
However, a look at a random Google result – https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-is-astrazeneca-in-breach-of-its-eu-contract/a-56360480
tells me that the EU paid hundreds of millions ahead of approval to AZ – which is one reason they are angry about not getting their vaccines on time. It will take a reference with a thorough and unbiased analysis of the entire process to convince me that EU slow-moving has significantly reduced the world’s vaccine supply. Especially that any functional vaccine is guaranteed a huge market, and AZ would have known it ahead of time.
As for Johnson, you seem it be arguing that he has killed lots of people (by delay) and done lots of cynical blame shifting (without causing deaths), and that makes him immeasurably better than the EU, who also did both – but at the same time. Somehow, I am not convinced.
“Then EU vaccine approval process was slow and clumsy compared to others, but not unreasonable, especially for a bureaucracy that has to keep 27 or so countries on board.”
And there you have the problem. The bureaucracy becomes the first priority, instead of being a by-product of actually getting things done…
True enough. Bureaucracies are less nimble and efficient. On the other hand, the focus on rules and procedures is better for reliability and accountability.A single nation like the UK can put it all in the hands of a single ‘vaccine tsar’, with the Prime Minister to take political responsibility. Collaboration among many nations with different cultures and interests cannot be run like that. So, if you want collaboration instead of cut-throat competition between nations, there is a price to be paid.
“the focus on rules and procedures is better for reliability and accountability”
Remember we’re talking about the EU here? There is almost zero accountability in the EU and rules are made up as they go along.
got it in one
But worse for deaths.
Accountability? Forgeddaboudit. Who has resigned over the EU’s vaccine fiasco?
I am not a defender of the EU, but in fairness, has Boris resigned over Britain having the highest death toll in Europe in absolute terms, and the third highest in the World in terms of deaths per million population? Especially when that is strongly linked to his disastrous errors of judgement in March 2020 and September 2020.
Why not?
It’s not only the EU where politicians with a track record of failure do not resign.
See my other reply to you. Our death count from Covid is exaggerated, just as many EU countries use methodologies that undercount their true position.
All that said, I’d be all for seeing the back of Carrie’s Clown and his ship of fools.
‘So, if you want collaboration instead of cut-throat competition between nations, there is a price to be paid.‘
Why assume that it’s about cut-throat competition? This is the zero-sum mentality that makes the EU so rigid. There are many pharmaceutical companies producing as much vaccine as fast as possible. The fact that countries place orders individually does not result in reduction of supply.
And AstraZeneca are doing this without profit, remember.
The so-called ‘collaboration‘, according to the media, was forced on the EU (by taking it out of the hands of four nations who were getting on with ordering the vaccine) by one person: Mrs Merkel.
There is a price to be paid. Yes, EU citizens’ lives.
There are not enough vaccines to go around. Everybody want to get theirs first. That is a zero-sum situation, no matter what you do. We saw it with PPE – everybody scrambling to grab what they could, export restrictions and grabbing goods in transit. We are competing for a scarce, life-saving vaccine that is also crucial to get our economies going. It does not get any more cut-throat than that.
The four nations that were moving fast could have got ahead in the queue – but the vaccines that they got would then have been withheld from someone else, weaker EU nations, the third world, or maybe even the UK?
The EU could have been faster, and grabbed their vaccines ahead of somebody else – at the cost of someone else’s lives, if you like. The country-by-country vaccine programs were not always brilliant either. But avoiding a beggar-my-neighbour fight for vaccines does go on the plus side, at least.
Is it really a zero-sum game when the production of the vaccines is ongoing?
What practical steps are national governments taking for the welfare of their citizens? From yesterday’s Daily Telegraph: ‘Austria and Denmark to go it alone after Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic negotiate for jabs outside of EU scheme.’
Meanwhile previously fought-over AstraZeneca doses languish unused in France and Germany.
But Macron and Merkel (and others) have basically rubbished the AstraZeneca vaccine so their populations don’t want it. They were both very stupid to do what they did, but they wont pay for it. Thousands of their fellow citizens will.
True enough. The EU leadership are a bunch of ‘collaborators’. We’ve seen their kind before.
I wonder how long it will take us to grow out of thinking that we are living in 1941 rather than 2021.
Yes, it’s the producer interest writ large. Schools are for the benefit of teachers; the NHS for the benefit of its staff; and the EU vaccine procurement bureaucracy for the benefit of bureaucrats.
Pupils? Patients? Sorry, who are they?
Schools are for the benefit of capitalist employers, the NHS is for the benefit of capitalist employers – the collateral benefits to individual students or patients have been hard won through years of effort.
“ the NHS for the benefit of its staff;”
That would be the NHS which is doing such a good job at vaccinating, right?